Why Executive Teams Underperform During Disruption
When disruption hits, all eyes turn to the executive team. But instead of becoming more cohesive, many leadership teams become more fragmented.
Why? Because disruption often magnifies unspoken tensions, exposes unclear decision-making, and surfaces competing priorities—all of which are hard to address in the middle of a storm.
Last quarter, I worked with an executive team leading through a major merger. Individually, they were strong leaders. But as a team? Their meetings were rushed, their trust was thin, and their decisions kept getting revisited. What looked like indecisiveness was actually a breakdown in alignment. Once they named the pattern, things shifted. They created shared agreements, clarified roles, and re-established how they’d lead together.
Here are five of the biggest reasons executive teams underperform during disruption:
False alignment.
On the surface, everyone agrees—but under the surface, people are holding back, unclear, or in quiet disagreement. In the rush to move forward, teams often skip the hard conversations required to build true alignment. This leads to rework, miscommunication, and conflicting priorities. What’s needed is space for real dialogue, where people feel safe enough to surface dissent and bold enough to seek clarity.
Siloed decision-making.
Disruption increases pressure, and pressure narrows focus. Executives naturally default to protecting their own departments and KPIs. While understandable, this behavior fractures the leadership team and undermines enterprise-wide strategy. The most effective teams create shared goals and make decisions with the whole system in mind—not just their individual lanes.
Reactive leadership norms.
Many leadership teams lack explicit agreements around how they operate together under stress. Without these, teams fall into reactive patterns: speeding up when they should pause, avoiding conflict, or making rushed decisions without adequate input. Establishing strong team norms—especially around communication, decision-making, and accountability—provides stability in uncertain times.
Avoidance of difficult dynamics.
Executive teams often carry years of unspoken history: personality clashes, past betrayals, power struggles. In stable times, these can be worked around. But during disruption, they resurface and erode trust. Avoiding the interpersonal side of leadership doesn’t make it go away—it makes it grow. The teams that thrive are the ones willing to do the relational work, even when it’s uncomfortable.
Underinvestment in the team itself.
Most executives have their own coaches or development plans—but the team rarely gets the same attention. During disruption, this is a missed opportunity. Your executive team is your most important leadership instrument. If it’s out of sync, everything downstream suffers. Investing in team coaching, facilitation, or structured strategy sessions isn't a “nice to have”—it’s a strategic necessity.
Disruption doesn’t just require strong leadership—it requires strong leadership teams. The most effective executive teams invest in how they function together, not just in what they deliver.
Leadership Practice
This week, reflect with your team:
What are our strengths as a leadership team under pressure?
Where do we underperform or avoid?
What conversation are we not having that could unlock more trust, clarity, or speed?
You don’t need to have it all figured out—but you do need to have it on the table.
About Athena
Athena Williams, Founder and CEO of Tenacious Leadership Institute, has been supporting leaders worldwide to become more tenacious for over 20 years. She has found that tenacity is the key to sustained leadership success in today’s ever-changing world. Through her coaching and leadership development programs, she helps leaders expertly handle change, complexity and other challenges so they can quickly get better results for themselves, their teams and their organizations.
Take the first step to becoming a tenacious leader by scheduling a call with us.
