Stephanie Ricci contributed to this story.
Today’s leaders face a world that’s anything but predictable. Volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments are the new normal, demanding a shift in leadership that goes beyond strategy alone. Traditional top-down models of leadership—where decisions flow from the top—are cracking under the pressure of today’s fast-paced, interconnected business world. These outdated methods slow decision-making, misalign teams, and ultimately undermine the agility needed to thrive in an unpredictable environment.
In my recent column, “Strategy In A VUCA World: The Importance Of Coherence And Clarity,” co-authored with Brooke Struck, the CEO of Converge, we explored the need for strategy to evolve in tandem with leadership. Now, we take a closer look at what it takes for leaders to navigate this uncertain landscape, emphasizing the importance of clarity, collaboration, and curiosity.
The CEO’s Role: From Soloist to Conductor
The days of the CEO as the sole person making all the calls are behind us. Instead, modern leaders should embrace acting as conductors, orchestrating input, fostering alignment, and empowering teams to act with clarity.
“The CEO shifts from the soloist to the conductor,” says Struck. “[They are] no longer required to be ‘the one with the plan’ or the visionary with the groundbreaking vision.
“We can’t have a single point of decision responsible for collecting, integrating and deciding upon so much information. Instead, we need lots of antennas continuously probing the ecosystem, coming together to make sense of those signals as a single coherent view of what’s really happening, and deciding how that affects our portfolio of bets,” he explains.
Why does this matter? In an unpredictable world, a single leader cannot anticipate every twist and turn. Instead, CEOs must tap into their teams’ collective intelligence to build resilience.
This shift enables organizations to respond faster to unexpected challenges, build alignment without sacrificing agility, and unlock the innovative potential of diverse perspectives.
As Brooke Struck puts it, “The traditional view of ‘deliberate strategy’ (run from the top of the organization and then pushed down through the ranks) is what we’re mostly working against with this more nimble approach.”
However, this doesn’t mean to abandon deliberate strategy, but rather take a mindset of curiosity and openness rather than control and domination. This shift in thinking reflects a broader transformation in how corporate strategy is crafted. For years, companies leaned on “deliberate strategy”—the kind that’s rigid, hierarchical, and top-down. But today, the most successful hinges on a more flexible, collaborative approach that adapts to change and invites diverse perspectives.
The key principles driving this shift include:
- Curiosity: Continuously question assumptions and stay open to fresh ideas.
- Systems Thinking: Understand that challenges and opportunities are interconnected, not isolated.
- Openness: Actively seek input from across the organization to refine decisions and build alignment.
By embracing these principles, leaders can maintain alignment across teams while driving faster, more effective action. Fostering a culture of curiosity and collaboration ensures that teams are empowered to pivot when the unexpected occurs, all while maintaining forward momentum.
“Without this clarity, even the most well-intentioned teams can end up pulling in different directions, creating friction instead of synergy,” says Struck.
Balancing Collaboration and Control
Of course, collaboration comes with its own challenges. One of the biggest hurdles for CEOs is knowing when to empower teams and when to step in and lead decisively. Not every decision requires broad input; sometimes, a leader must take the reins to provide clarity and direction.
After all, the goal isn’t perfect harmony; it’s focused coherence—teams working together, not in lockstep.
“You let others influence direction when their reasoning is clear and the evidence is sound,” explains Struck. “You take the reins when your team hasn’t generated the confidence that you need that these are the best moves to make given what you know and don’t know. Sometimes that might be because of a breakdown in process — they didn’t collect key information, or the interpretation has obvious problems — Sometimes that might simply be a disagreement about how to weight various risks, differences in values or priorities.”
“It’s centrally important that you explain your rationale to your team, because that’s how you position them to be more autonomous and effective in the future, and because that’s how you maintain engagement and confidence within the team,” he adds.
Building a New Leadership Model
So, how do you actually make this shift to a more collaborative, conductor-style leadership?
According to Struck, leaders should start somewhere where the stakes are lower for both you and your team. Use that ‘training ground’ to develop some new habits and reflexes. As you get more comfortable, venture into higher-stakes areas.
Here’s a practical roadmap to get started:
- Start small: Don’t try to overhaul everything at once. Begin with lower-stakes scenarios like scenario planning or brainstorming sessions to experiment with collaborative decision-making.
- Clarify the ‘why’: Teams perform better when they understand not just what decisions are being made, but why those decisions are being made. Transparency in the reasoning behind decisions helps to build trust, engagement, and alignment.
- Engage HR: HR plays a pivotal role in embedding collaboration into the company’s culture. From hiring to onboarding to leadership development, HR can help ensure these principles are ingrained in the organization’s DNA.
Leadership in a VUCA world isn’t about having all the answers, but creating the conditions for teams to find the answers together. CEOs who embrace this mindset—aligning strategy, empowering people, and enabling adaptability—will lead organizations that thrive, no matter what the future holds.
“The CEO needs to coordinate a process for these signals to be collected, integrated, and decided upon. They need not be the one cracking the code themselves—teams will crack the codes of future businesses, not leaders anymore.”
Note: This is the first article in a two-part series with Brooke Struck on stable leadership during unstable times.
Next week, we’ll explore how CEOs can build trust, foster accountability, and sustain collective leadership across their teams. We’ll cover tools for managing conflict, balancing vulnerability with strength, and ensuring your organization remains aligned in times of change. Stay tuned!