Here is a brief excerpt from an article by Sallie Krawcheck for LinkedIn Pulse. “I took over a team — and a bunch of people then quit (including my mentor). Here’s how I rebuilt.” To read the complete article, check out others, and sign up for email alerts, please click here.

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In the How I Lead series, professionals explain how to lead in times of turmoil or growth. Read the posts, then write your own (use #HowILead in the body of your post). Here are Krawcheck’s observations:

I’ve led businesses in turmoil. Ken Lewis charged me with turning around the Merrill Lynch wealth management business after Bank of America acquired it during the subprime crisis; and Sandy Weill charged me with rehabilitating Citi’s research business after the equity research scandal.

I’ve written about the lessons from these experiences. During those periods, I witnessed some truly impressive leadership: one of Smith Barney’s senior leaders hosted an epic 6-hour open-mic call with all 14,000 Financial Advisors, in which he answered any and all questions on investment products we had sold that had gone bad. And I saw lack of leadership: executives who hid in their offices or who would only take pre-approved questions at town halls.

But my experience in leading during periods of turmoil pre-dates the financial crisis, back to my very first leadership role. I had been named Director of Research at Bernstein, just a few years after joining. I joke now that I was given the position because they offered it to everyone else, they all said no, and they finally got to me. That’s an exaggeration… but not by too much.

What is not an exaggeration is that they had asked my mentor — one of the top Analysts at the place, the guy who hired me, the guy who pushed for my first promotion, the guy who read and critiqued my research, the guy who took years off of my career trajectory through his stream of good advice — to be Director of Research numerous times. Numerous. And he said no every time.

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You don’t gain a team’s confidence in a day, and perhaps particularly during periods of turbulence. But, slowly, slowly, as we kept a focus on what really mattered and shut out almost everything else, we rebuilt the business into one that was stronger than when we started.

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Here is a direct link to the complete article in which she shares several key ideas and experiences.

Sallie Krawcheck is the Chair of Ellevate Network and Ellevate Asset Management. Ellevate Network is a professional woman’s network, operating across industries and around the world. Both businesses are committed to the full economic and financial engagement of women.