Reclaiming Strategic Leadership
in Times of Disruption
By Lauren Cohen, CEO Cohen Leadership Group
Published: May 15, 2025
In today’s environment, the swirl isn’t a season — it’s the new setting. Executive orders, tariff negotiations, market shifts, AI developments, and on and on. Leaders are navigating a fast-moving game with incomplete rules and high-stakes consequences.
That’s why we convened a group of senior executives from across sectors including banking, healthcare, construction, and private equity to unpack a single question:
How do leaders stay grounded — and strategic — in times of constant disruption?
Here are the three most powerful insights that emerged — and what they mean for leaders right now.
🖊️ 1. Communicate Early — Even When You Don’t Have the Answers
(But Don’t Default to False Reassurance)
One of the sharpest tensions leaders named was this: What do you tell your people when everything is changing and you’re not sure what’s next?
Several participants shared real-world dilemmas. A bank president described a project that was shelved after two years of investment: “We’ve spent resources, money, staff time — and now it’s all on pause. What do I tell my team?”
Another executive put it more bluntly:
“I’m constantly asking: Am I saying enough? Am I saying too much? Am I giving false comfort just to stabilize people?”
This isn’t just a communication issue — it’s emotional labor. When people are uncertain, they often interpret silence as danger and overly polished messages as spin.
So what actually works?
We guide leaders to establish a “communication stance” — a steady, structured approach to communicating amid ambiguity:
- Say what you know. Anchor your team in concrete facts.
- Name what’s still in motion. Acknowledge what’s unclear.
- Share what you’re doing. Provide context for your decisions.
- Keep showing up. Your tone and consistency matter more than polish.
Even simple statements like, “We don’t have the full picture yet, but here’s what we’re watching,” go a long way in stabilizing your team.
💡 CLG Insight: Your tone sets the temperature. Especially during ambiguity, leaders don’t need to offer certainty — they need to offer honesty, steadiness, and trust-building transparency.
🔄 2. Strategic Alignment Is Not a One-Time Event
(It’s a Muscle You Have to Keep Flexing)
Alignment isn’t optional in disruption — it’s oxygen.
One healthcare executive discussed how tariffs disrupted their supply chain and how a cross-functional risk team helped surface business impacts more quickly. Another described how siloed decision-making caused misfires during a high-stakes transition.
“You can’t run a cross-functional strategy without cross-functional clarity.”
This challenge is familiar to many of our clients. As priorities shift, systems lag. Strategic drift doesn’t show up all at once — it creeps in through delayed decisions, duplicated work, and reactive behaviors.
That’s why alignment must be dynamic, not episodic. Highly aligned and agile teams embed:
- Regular recalibration huddles
- Defined decision-rights and ownership maps
- Cross-functional feedback loops
- Fast signal-checks to catch swirl before things escalates
💡 CLG Insight: The most effective executive teams treat alignment as an ongoing operating rhythm — not a checkbox.
🔭 3. In Disruption, Your Behavior Speaks as Loud as Strategy
(You’re Always Modeling — Whether You Mean To or Not)
During disruption, people don’t just need direction — they need something to mirror.
At Cohen Leadership Group, we talk often with clients about how leadership presence shapes team norms. We also live it ourselves.
I often work unconventional hours. As a CEO and an engaged parent, I might step away mid-day for a school event and log back on after bedtime. That’s what balance looks like for me and my family.
“I’ve told our team: I don’t care when you work. I care that you own your work, meet deadlines, and deliver strong results. Just because I send an email at 10:30pm doesn’t mean I expect a reply at 10:31.”
That clarity matters. Especially when the pace is relentless and expectations are unspoken, teams will often take their cues from how leaders behave (like a flight attendant on a bumpy flight).
We work with executives to intentionally model the behaviors they want to instill:
- Reinforcing calm, not panic
- Setting boundaries, not glorifying burnout
- Prioritizing clarity over reactivity
One forum participant said it well:
“Your people are watching you even more closely when the future feels unclear.”
💡 CLG Insight: In times of disruption, you’re not just setting strategy — you’re setting tone, energy, and example. Model what matters most.
Final Reflection: In Disruption, Leaders Aren’t Just Decision-Makers — They’re Meaning-Makers
“You can’t eliminate the swirl. But you can help people make sense of it.”
That quote from one of our participants captures perfectly the opportunity in this moment. The job of strategic leadership isn’t about controlling the storm — it’s about helping your team find clarity within it.
At Cohen Leadership Group, we support executives and their teams to build that capacity. We help clients:
- Navigate executive-level communication in swirl-heavy environments
- Recalibrate strategy, ownership structures, and decision-making flow
- Strengthen cross-functional alignment and team-wide execution
- Build leadership presence that models clarity, balance, and trust
- Access a confidential partner to process the pressure, swirl, and decisions they can’t always address in the room
We don’t offer easy answers. We help leaders build the systems, skills, and mindsets to lead through uncertainty with clarity, cohesion, and confidence.
💬 Want to explore how this applies in your organization? Drop us a note at Lauren@cohenleadershipgroup.com — we’d love to continue the conversation.