When crisis strikes, stay cool and stay on your toes – Stay Frosty.

That is the first of four steps to surviving a crisis from author Jim Moorehead, an attorney and co-founder of a crisis management practice at a Washington law firm.  Moorehead has written the Instant Survivor: Right Ways to Respond When Things Go Wrong.

In times of trouble or in times when trouble turns into a crisis, you must resolve to survive and you need to have a cool head. Check your emotions at the door and face the facts. Moorehead advises people to bravely diagnose exactly what the problem is. The first step is to write the problem down. It helps you to get away from your first, emotional reaction, which is: Why is this happening to me?

Moorehead advises readers to dissect the problem, asking themselves which parts they own and can control.  He gives the example of a person whose spouse leaves them. They don’t own the spouse. They can’t control what the spouse does but the crisis the abandoned spouse faces is likely to leak into many areas.  “Crises don’t obey boundaries,” Moorehead writes.

“Without help,” he says, “there are too many crises, too few full-fledged survivors, and an expanding population of walking wounded on the professional and personal fronts.” Moorehead draws on firsthand accounts and anecdotes to inspire and encourage his audience.

Here are four action steps to help any individual prevent and tackle life’s hard and soft crisis in an organization:

STAY FROSTY: Remain calm and focused when a crisis begins
SECURE SUPPORT: Tap into your network of personal and professional contacts
STAND TALL: Take full charge of your response
SAVE YOUR FUTURE: Prepare for post-crisis success.