This is part 2 of 2 on top leadership of organisations through disruptions.
2025 was marked by an external environment shifting in sudden, structural jolts. Issues that were once the long-term domain of policymakers and diplomats became immediate and concrete risks for boards and executive teams. This includes AI, geopolitical tensions, geo-economic and supranational fragmentation, and threats to supply security.
A company’s vision and values should usually remain constant during disruptions. Yet the way these are lived in practice often needs adjustment. Governance, leadership, communication and day-to-day follow-up must become more concrete and forward-leaning. Organisational cohesion is typically strained when external parameters shift materially.
For top leadership, however, disruptions also represents a unique opportunity for development; personally, professionally and as leaders. Preparation significantly increases the likelihood of success.
Experience is personal, …
The following is based on my own experience shaped by the internal and external realities of the companies I have led – and shaped by who I am. Such experience cannot simply be transferred to others.
Experience is always individual and context-dependent:
- It is a fundamental cognitive bias that we see what we want to see (e.g., Reward Prediction Error)before we acknowledge what we can see.
- An organisation’s willingness and ability to change is the sum of its internal trust. Sociological and psychological processes therefore become uniquely complex during disruptions. The impulse triggering the disruption can activate long-suppressed and unconscious layers.
- Organisational dynamics can therefore surprise.
Yet across cases, patterns do emerge. The underlying logic can be difficult to discern, but still offers valuable inspiration: outward symptoms revealing unexpected inner states.
… but leadership in disruption builds on self-awareness, …
Leadership under disruption does not start with structures, diagrams or tools, but with the mindset of the executive. A leader must be self-aware to make decisions whose consequences extend far beyond themselves. And hubris becomes an inherent risk when disruption demands exceptional speed and decisiveness. Humility and self-awareness are not virtues alone, they are prerequisites.
When the wind picks up, one can build windbreaks or wind turbines, or both. What matters is realising the wind is blowing, and then determining its direction. This requires employee initiative, which in turn rests on trust. Trust grows when leaders make the complex understandable without oversimplifying it.
… and aligning focus with the external impulse …
Disruptions typically unfold in three phases, regardless of whether the cause is geopolitical, market-driven, technological or internal. These phases provide mental order amidst chaos, but they are not a method:
- Before disruption build robustness, scenarios, alternative options and organisational readiness.
- During disruption set clear priorities, recalibrate more frequently, anchor responsibility visibly and engage key individuals.
- After disruption consolidate, re-establish accountability lines, restore normal operations and embed learning.
... on well considered management ...
In my experience, the following often supports managerially:
- Separate streams: Parallel management of “operations” and “change”. Dual leadership, i.e. one team running the existing business, another driving the new or divesting of or winding down what should not continue. This requires short decision lines, clear accountability, and separate reporting. The goal is to make the complex as clear and manageable as possible.
- Measure: Progress must be measured simply, concretely and honestly. Churchill is often attributed: “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
- Engage: Create a clear “why” using a small set of consistent symbols in your language. It is more effective than an elaborate strategy. Be honest and engaging in the narrative. Also remember to celebrate the small wins and articulate the major challenges in a positive, rational, and honest way. Consensus and support are built on credibility.
- Be realistic: We are motivated by what we believe is possible, not by the impossible. Strategies earn trust when they are executed consistently and coherently. Credibility is therefore at risk if you over- or understate the level of drama (“code red,” “burning platform,” etc.). Crisis must never become a permanent condition or mindset.
… and on setting human values over systems and frameworks
In my experience, the following generally strengthen trust and execution:
- Create possibilities: Ask employees, colleagues and the board never to say “no”. Ask them to assess how it could be done. Only then is a reasoned “no” legitimate. Fast rejection prevents discovery.
- Honesty: Be honest with your employees. It is a signal of integrity and is necessary for clarity of direction. Equal footing increases credibility; clear answers and individual recognition increases respect. Considerate and respectful communication should always come naturally.
- Openness: We have the right to disagree; for once the decision is made, we have the duty to loyally support it. Execution is about the will to drive change all the way through. Therefore, you must relate soberly and openly to both progress and risks. This presupposes trust between colleagues and across layers of leadership. When something succeeds that you disagreed with, your understanding of the world and its possibilities expands. Remind yourself of your original reservations when something succeeds. This way you learn.
- Trust: Trust your employees, and therefore follow up. Follow-up and control are two different things. Everyone wants to feel that what they do has value and makes a difference. When you follow up, employees gain access to support and guidance when they encounter obstacles. Follow-up may be more or less concrete depending on the person, the situation, or the area. But follow-up must always be carried out honestly, and with resolve.
- Acknowledge: We have the right to make mistakes, but we have the duty to learn from them. The one who makes no mistakes, does nothing. Therefore, mistakes should be celebrated. They are the precondition for creativity and initiative.
- Involve: Ask your employees and your close customers open questions as often as you ask yourself. Ask both high AND low in the organisation. Your everyday life risks unfolding in meetings with the same circle of middle managers and advisers. Their prisms risk becoming your prism. But it is the frontline employees who most often have the best and most nuanced understanding of both your raison d’être (your customers) and the capabilities of your suppliers or production apparatus.
- Empower: Decentralise authority earlier than you think necessary. Disruptions may require a phase with tough and central decisions about direction and means. Employees usually fully respect that, but only for short phases. The sooner they regain their sense of process ownership, the better. That sense of ownership produces belonging and opportunities for development, in short, motivation for the workplace.
The above applies to large shifts in the external environment. But AI has a distinct nature: it is a universal catalyst that amplifies human capacities, cognitive, communicative and creative. That will be the subject of the next part, to be released within two weeks.