What Volatile Times Reveal About Your Leadership Team (Part 1 of 3)
- Russ Powell
- Mar 11
- 5 min read
Part 1 of a short series on leadership in unstable times
Look around. The signals are hard to ignore.
Wars are being launched without the preparation or debate that people assumed would always come first. Economies are sending mixed signals — growth in one headline, anxiety and rising costs in the next. Supply chains are still fragile, and the cracks show up without much warning. AI tools and capabilities are advancing faster than most organizations can adapt. And the leaders we have asked to make sense of all this — in governments, in major institutions, in positions of public trust — are struggling to meet the moment, revealing in real time what underprepared leadership looks like.
If you run a startup, lead a team, manage projects, or own a small business, it’s tempting to think this chaos is happening “out there” — separate from your day-to-day. But it’s not. It’s already inside your walls.
I was reminded of this recently while sitting in on a leadership meeting at a growing company. The agenda was familiar — product delays, customer feedback, hiring priorities. But within a few minutes, a pattern began to emerge.
Engineering explained they could deliver on schedule — as long as requirements stopped shifting. Sales replied they were simply responding to what customers were asking for. Marketing noted that messaging would have to wait until the product roadmap was clearer. Operations simply reported in that they were running at capacity.
No one raised their voice. No one blamed anyone directly.
But as the conversation moved around the table, I noticed that no one was actually taking responsibility for solving the problem. The issues bounced from one department to the next — politely, efficiently — and without resolution.
Eventually, the CEO stepped in and made the decision herself.
The meeting ended. People went back to work. And the organization quietly remained one CEO-decision away from gridlock the next time pressure rose.
The Gap Between Smart and Prepared
These were not bad managers. They were intelligent, committed people who cared deeply about the company’s success. What the organization lacked was not talent. It was leadership capacity — the collective ability to think through hard problems together, hold shared responsibility, and move forward without everything having to travel upward first.
In stable environments, that gap can stay hidden for a long time. Work moves forward. Decisions eventually get made. The cost is real, but survivable.
In volatile, uncertain environments, the same gap becomes something else entirely. Poor decisions compound. Team cohesion fractures under pressure. Founders become the bottleneck — not because they want to be, but because no one else has been developed to carry the weight.
What was a friction problem in a steady market becomes a crisis in a turbulent one.
Leadership Capacity as a Shock Absorber
Think of leadership capacity as organizational infrastructure — the kind you only notice when it’s missing.
When it’s strong, difficult situations get processed quickly and effectively. Leaders bring problems forward early, challenge assumptions, and make decisions together — even when information is incomplete and the stakes are high. The organization absorbs the shock and keeps moving.
When capacity is weak, problems bounce. Conversations become cautious or circular. Ownership blurs. Pressure travels upward until someone — usually the founder or CEO — absorbs it personally. Over time, that pattern becomes exhausting for the leader and unsustainable for the organization.
The instability outside your company doesn’t create this problem. It exposes it.
The instability outside your company doesn’t create this problem. It exposes it.
Why Development Gets Delayed — and Why That’s Dangerous Now
Most leaders know their teams could be stronger. And most are still waiting.
Waiting for things to slow down. Waiting for the next funding round. Waiting for the right moment when there’s finally enough time, or budget, or breathing room.
That moment is not coming.
And every month you wait, you’re making a quiet bet: that nothing will go seriously wrong before your leaders are ready. In this environment, that is an increasingly dangerous wager.
There is also a common assumption that smart managers will figure out leadership on their own. Some do. But trial and error is a costly teacher — for the manager, for their team, and for the organization watching it unfold.
Leadership is a different kind of work. Handling conflict, forming clear agreements, making decisions alongside others, holding a team together under pressure — these capabilities don’t develop from ideas alone. They are learned through practice, through feedback, through the experience of working through real problems alongside other people. That kind of development has to be built intentionally. It doesn’t happen by accident.
What Changes When Leadership Capacity Grows
When development takes hold inside an organization, conversations begin to change.
Leaders start looking at problems more systemically — asking not “who caused this?” but “what conditions allowed this to happen?” They bring multiple perspectives into the room rather than defending departmental positions. They form clear agreements so work can move forward. And they become more comfortable with productive conflict and disagreement — recognizing that honest conversation is usually the fastest path to a better decision.
Leadership meetings change. Responsibility becomes shared. Decisions move faster. The CEO stops being the last line of defense on every hard call.
The organization becomes far better at absorbing the shocks that come from outside — because the people inside it have been genuinely prepared to lead.
A Question Worth Pondering
If you were to listen closely to your next leadership meeting — really listen — what patterns would you hear?
Are your managers working together to solve problems? Or are the hard issues quietly bouncing from department to department until someone higher up absorbs the pressure?
The gap between the leadership team you have today and the one your organization is asking for isn't going to close on its own. But it can be closed — with intention, with the right frameworks, and with real investment in the people doing the hardest work.
Resilient organizations build that capacity before the crisis arrives. Not during it.
“My team now has a shared language for solving problems and tools for having more ‘data-rich’ conversations. I use Russ’ Middle Path frameworks daily and recommend them highly.” –Peter Bui, Senior Software Engineer, Patreon
Russ Powell is an organizational and leadership development expert who works with startups, small businesses, and executive teams.
This is the first in a three-part series on leadership development in an age of instability.
Part 2 — Leadership Debt: The Hidden Risk in Growing Companies [coming soon] • Part 3 — Strong Organizations Are Built on Strong Teams [coming soon]
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