In this article, we investigate the leadership response to the COVID‐19 pandemic crisis in Greece and Sweden based on the strategic leadership framework put forth by Boin, 't Hart, Stern and Sundelius. We seek to understand the contextual (institutional, administrative and political) factors explaining the differences in stringency of measures and centralization of response in Greece and Sweden, respectively. What trade‐offs did public leaders implement between effectiveness and efficiency to successfully manage the crisis? We find that reliance on expertise plays out differently in centralized and decentralized structure, while a salient lesson drawn for practitioners is that there is more than one path to successful crisis leadership response contingent on institutional capacity, bureaucratic autonomy and political system. The article concludes with implications for leadership response during crises and practical lessons for crisis managers.