Disruption shakes our sense of security. When the environment feels chaotic, the brain’s threat detection systems go into overdrive, activating the amygdala and flooding the body with stress hormones like cortisol. This stress response can shrink our mental bandwidth, narrow our attention, and leave us with tunnel vision focused only on survival. Over time, repeated activation of these systems can make us — and our teams — feel stuck, powerless, and reactive rather than strategic.

That’s why cultivating agency is so powerful. When people experience a sense of choice, influence, and meaningful action, the prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain responsible for reasoning, perspective-taking, and planning — comes back online.

When things go sideways during complex change, leaders often fall into the trap of firefighting instead of facilitating. But the most effective executives pause to ask—not assume. These five questions aren’t soft—they’re strategic. They help your team reconnect, realign, and rebuild momentum when the pressure is high and uncertainty is growing.

At Tenacious Leadership Institute, we’ve worked with senior leaders in global companies who’ve watched their best teams start to unravel—despite their talent, dedication, and shared purpose. The common thread? When disruption strikes, even high performers can lose their rhythm. Priorities blur. Tension builds. Energy gets wasted in the gaps between people, not just systems.

Most leaders today say they’re open to change. But when disruption actually hits—through market volatility, organizational restructuring, technological shifts, or rising team tension—the cracks start to show.

Take our client David, a Senior Vice President at a global tech company. When a major internal reorganization was announced alongside a shifting product roadmap, many of his peers scrambled—overloading their teams with new initiatives, retreating into isolated decision-making, and defaulting to short-term thinking. David took a different approach. He paused. He brought his core leadership team together to realign on priorities, got clear on what could be paused or dropped, and led with direct, transparent communication—even when he didn’t have all the answers.

Disruption sends your nervous system into overdrive. It narrows your attention, floods your body with stress hormones, and cues your brain to default to old habits and reactive behaviors. This response might be helpful in a short-term crisis—but it’s unsustainable in long-term complexity.

Relaxation isn’t disengagement—it’s recalibration. It’s how you reset your system so you can access your full executive intelligence: strategic thinking, emotional regulation, intuition, and creativity. These aren’t just nice-to-haves. They’re the core capabilities you need in moments of volatility.

In the face of disruption, resistance is natural. The nervous system is wired to seek safety and familiarity—so it’s no surprise that change can trigger unconscious pushback.

But resistance doesn’t always look like refusal or rebellion. It’s often much more nuanced. Especially in professional environments, it wears disguises that seem reasonable—even productive. A team that suddenly “needs more data.” A leader who doubles down on minor tasks. A project that keeps shifting but never seems to move forward.

You don’t need a culture survey to know how your team is doing. Disruption reveals it.

The way people show up under pressure—how they speak (or don’t), how they respond to feedback, how they collaborate or retreat—tells the truth about your culture. Not the aspirational version, but the lived one.

Resilience gets a lot of credit in times of disruption—and rightly so. It helps us absorb shocks, recover from setbacks, and find our footing again.

But here’s the truth: resilience is only part of the story. In a landscape that keeps changing, leaders don’t just need to bounce back. They need to move forward.

That’s where tenacity comes in.

When the stakes are high and the pace is fast, strong leadership matters more than ever.

But what if some of your default leadership instincts—especially during disruption—are based on outdated assumptions?

Let’s reframe five common myths that keep leaders stuck during change, and explore new ways of thinking that build clarity, trust, and traction.

Change rarely arrives with a parade.

It shows up quietly—through shifting customer feedback, subtle changes in engagement data, rising team tension, or unexpected competitor plays. By the time the disruption is obvious, it’s already in motion.

That’s why leaders who navigate complexity well aren’t just reacting—they’re sensing. They’re paying attention to early signals, even the quiet ones. Especially the quiet ones.

Why even experienced leaders need to rethink their habits in times of complex change

Disruption doesn’t just shake up your strategy—it subtly reshapes your leadership.

And often, without you noticing.

As a seasoned leader, you’ve weathered uncertainty before. You’ve adapted, pivoted, restructured, and kept things moving. But disruption today doesn’t always look like a clear event—it shows up as complexity, velocity, and the exhaustion of making decision after decision in an environment that never quite settles.