What Two Coups in Moscow Taught Me About Leadership

I managed a company through two coups in Moscow. It taught me something most leadership books miss.

Two coups. Tanks firing on the (Russian) White House. Recovering funds that vanished from bank accounts. Political retribution. Visits from all manner of security services.

Seventeen years building and running a company before, during, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union will change how you think about leadership.

A few learnings that feel uncomfortably relevant right now as we lurch from one crisis to the next:

1. Decision-making
In high-risk, fast-moving situations, assume that the first information you receive is likely to be wrong or incomplete. Don’t ignore it. Don’t shoot the messenger. Move fast but verify accuracy faster. Acting on flawed information is always a bad decision.

2. Information abhors a vacuum
If you don’t fill open space with credible information, inaccurate information will flood the space. Leaders make this mistake all the time: they open a difficult conversation, then retreat when it gets uncomfortable. That’s when misinformation takes over.

3. You don’t own your brand
You lease it from your customers and stakeholders.
And they can rewrite the terms overnight. In an environment increasingly shaped by misinformation and distrust, your license to operate might expire faster than you can imagine.
If you can’t see around corners, you’re already behind.

4. Know your non-negotiables
Anticipate emerging risks. Figure out what you don’t know. Draw your redlines now. If you wait until you know you need them, it’s too late to define them.  If someone on your board, leadership team, or staff pops up in the Epstein files, what’s your plan? Denial is not a plan. Silence isn’t neutral.

One moment that’s always stayed with me. After a meeting with a Fortune 100 company, a colleague walked into my office with that look—half amused, half stunned. They had asked her to describe a time she had to think “outside the box.”

She laughed.
“What box?” she said.
“In the Soviet Union, everything was outside the box. There was no box.”

That’s the point.
Most leaders are still operating as if the box exists.
But it doesn’t. Accepting that reality, today is key to success tomorrow.