What Would the Queen Do? Crisis Lessons for Today’s Leaders
What would Queen Elizabeth II do if she were teaching crisis leadership to university, political, or nonprofit executives?
She might start with three questions every leader should ask when credible allegations surface involving someone on their team or affiliated with their organization:
What did you know?
When did you know it?
What did you do about it?
We don’t often think of monarchs as crisis managers, but Queen Elizabeth made one of the most decisive public leadership calls of her reign in 2019: removing her own son, Prince Andrew, from public duties well before any trial took place, after his ties to Jeffrey Epstein and alleged abuse of a minor became the subject of mounting legal scrutiny and international outrage.
No press conference. No defense. No vanilla statement promising an investigation. Just a statement from Buckingham Palace that Prince Andrew would be stepping back from public life “for the foreseeable future.” It was swift, unambiguous, and communicated one thing: The Crown will stand behind victims.
Her actions — parental and institutional — were rooted in protecting the long-term credibility of the monarchy, but also something deeper: a willingness to err on the side of believing that harm had been done.
Other institutions have struggled with this calculus.
When the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke at Penn State, key players either failed to ask the right questions — or ignored the answers. Were they protecting children or the brand? The board’s slow response cost the university dearly, in reputation, dollars, and trust.
More recently, the University of Southern California faced major fallout over its handling of sexual abuse allegations against campus gynecologist Dr. George Tyndall. Despite years of complaints, he remained employed until media investigations forced action. Again: What did you know, when, and what did you do? USC’s inept response cost the university over $1 billion in settlements. Faculty, students and alumni said the president had lost the moral authority to lead. More importantly, the university’s failure to act sooner led to thousands of additional victims.
There are countless examples — across higher ed, nonprofits, and religious institutions — of leadership choosing silence, spin, or stalling. Crisis leadership isn't about predicting guilt. It's about protecting people, and when needed, making the painful call to act before the court of public opinion turns into a courtroom. Whenever a leader chooses to protect the brand over protecting people who have been — or may have been — harmed, they're making the wrong call.
Queen Elizabeth didn’t need an investigation to tell her the risk to her institution. She didn’t wait for unanimous consensus. She simply led. Quietly. Decisively. Unequivocally.
Leaders today would do well to remember that kind of clarity.