In large-scale societal crises, collaboration between different organizations involved in saving lives and protecting the public is extremely important. However, research has not attended to issues of leadership for inter-organizational collaboration and networking during crises. Sweden’s largest forest fire in modern times posed extreme challenges for rescue organizations and public authorities coordinating information to the public. This study focuses on discursive leadership strategies in a crisis communication network during the forest fire. Findings illustrate which network leadership strategies were used during network meetings,and which role these strategies had for leadership, collaboration and crisis management. The main contribution is the empirical findings of eight discursive directing leadership strategies that network leaders and participants used to collaborate on coordinating crisis communication to the public. Normative theory and recommendations for discursive leadership strategies in crisis communication networks is suggested, relating to the eight directing strategies.