Managing Teams Under Fire

Dear Leaders,

I’ll start with an apology. Yesterday was due the 30th edition of the Performance Edge Newsletter and I had so many ideas about what I wanted to write to you.

But then the war started. The first 2 weeks were like a haze and luckily, I had the first editions of the month already planned. We all thought it’ll be a short event, one of two weeks of chaos but then a return to a peaceful routine. It seems we were all wrong, the situation is getting more complex by the minute, and we don’t see the end. We run to the bomb shelter a million times a day, we don’t sleep at night, no school for weeks and all events have been cancelled, including all my concerts.

For those of you who don’t know me, let me add a short introduction. I’m Roit Feldenkreis, an international orchestra conductor, speaker and performance coach for executives. For the past 6 years I have lived in Barcelona and since last August, I’ve returned to Israel, my home. Here I also manage leadership excellence programs for the Ministry of Health at Lotem.

I share this intro because what I sat down to write to you this morning is something I’ve realized is one of the most unique skills we’ve mastered in this country, which is how to Lead Under Fire.

The past three weeks have been intense, but they're just the latest chapter in over two and a half years of living in a war zone, since October 7th, 2023. You might expect the kind of total financial collapse you see in other conflict regions around the world, but here things have unfolded differently. And that's exactly what I want to explore.

During these 2 years, our start-up nation has grown and flourished, despite all predictions. In 2025, a year of war and geopolitical uncertainty, the Israeli tech market for “exits”, mergers and acquisitions as well as initial public offerings of shares, recorded one of its best years over the past decade. The value of Israeli tech exits, including M&As and IPOs, in 2025 alone jumped by a whopping 340 percent to $58.8 billion.

So, what’s the secret? Why are Israeli managers, directors and entrepreneurs succeeding where most people fail? Here are the secrets:

1.        Adaptability – As leaders in this country, we’re used to a changing landscape. Whether it’s good or bad, we know it’s all temporary. We focus on here and now, while building strategic plans that we know might need to rapidly change in the future.

2.        Resilience – This is not a mere suggestion. When you’re hosting a board meeting and sirens go off 5 minutes into it, as a CEO, you must think about so much more than just this quarter’s KPI’s. When you hire a new talent and on the first day of the job, she’s called in to reserve duty in the IDF, you have to figure it out on the spot (this example is from my own team).

3.        Speed – We don’t waste time on endless meetings; we step up instantly when things happen. We figure out what our clients’ most urgent needs are and create a solution as fast as possible.

4.        Connection – We keep tabs on everyone on our team, every single day. We ask them what they need from us and make sure to provide back-to-back support.

Managing a team in a warzone is one of the most difficult things to do and obviously I don’t wish our situation on anyone, but when you learn to do it, you become so much more powerful as a leader, and that’s what I do wish for you all.

At BHZ Consulting Group firm we work with global leaders who want an edge, an advantage, and know this world requires something different.

Contact our team at info@bhz-group.com or me directly at roit@bhz-group.com to discover how we can take your team to the next level.