Act and Plan: Deploy Adaptive Leadership to Weather Disruption

Ongoing policy shifts can quickly create instability, draining both executives and employees. A balanced executive response includes a willingness to reframe short-term challenges as opportunities for strategic growth and resilience. 

Start by orienting yourself around the types of impacts your function can prepare for. 

Rather than wait until it becomes clear how disruptions will impact the organization, make availability, visibility and communication your first response. Run employee pulse surveys to gauge levels of concern. Seek input on frequency of communications — and then schedule all-hands meetings to demonstrate listening and transparency. Share the assumptions that underpin your strategy, and invite employees to report any signals that challenge those assumptions.

A balanced response to disruption also includes a focus on self-care to ward off burnout. Prioritize time management by delegating appropriately and placing boundaries on your calendar so you can take pauses and stay charged.

As regulatory landscapes shift, executives may clash over strategic priorities and ways to manage risk. Left unchecked, this instability can lead to siloed thinking and undermine a unified corporate strategy.

An aligned C-suite with a common purpose and values makes good decisions that support business performance. Work toward building the middle ground between “act” and “plan.” Start by conducting function-level scenario planning and brainstorming with your team. Determine which initiatives to lead on your own and which to co-chair with other functional leaders. For co-led initiatives, clarify decision-making roles, rules, frameworks and criteria.

Once decision-making norms are in place, prepare collaboratively for the most likely scenarios. Work with executive peers to ensure all leaders and stakeholders clearly understand potential challenges and opportunities. So that strategies remain strong when the organization begins to experience disruptive impact, hold formal discussions as triggers arise.

Employees’ fears about how policy shifts might impact their jobs and lives outside of work have weakened morale, psychological safety and engagement. You won’t have all the answers as to how external changes will impact the workforce, but you can take measures to stabilize your own function.

To foster well-being, create opportunities for employees to express how they’re feeling and for leaders to share what they know and don’t know. Remain sensitive to the impact of reductions in the workforce or return-to-office mandates. Prioritize real-time performance recognition, promote psychological safety and set clear guidance for well-being and workload management.

To boost engagement, equip leaders and managers to tailor motivation strategies to workforce segments and individual employees. Get ahead of employee change fatigue with a plan to identify and mitigate areas where weariness is likely.