When a CEO’s leadership style creates more problems than it solves, organizational performance can suffer — sometimes dramatically.

Consider “Alex,” a chief marketing officer at a midsized technology company we worked with. Her CEO was celebrated for his brilliant vision but was also notorious for his impatience and intolerance of dissent. Directors began leaving. Engagement surveys flagged low trust. As long as revenue continued to climb, the CEO faced little pushback.

What can leaders like Alex do? You can’t change a CEO’s personality, but you can shape how you engage, align others and create the conditions for performance. Here are five strategies we’ve used successfully in our work with leaders.

1. MANAGE UP WITH INTENTION

Managing up is not about appeasement; it’s about alignment. Start by asking: What outcomes matter most to my CEO?

Alex mapped her CEO’s two top priorities: rapid growth and investor confidence. She then reframed every recommendation through those lenses. When raising concerns, she used the SCR Framework (Situation — Complication — Resolution) to stay concise and strategic.

By speaking her CEO’s language, she shifted from being perceived as obstructive to being seen as a trusted adviser. Leaders are far more receptive when ideas connect directly to their stated priorities.

2. BUILD AGREEMENTS ON COMMUNICATION AND ROLES

Fast-moving CEOs often create organizational whiplash by revisiting decisions or overruling execution midstream. Ambiguity fuels frustration. The antidote is building explicit agreements, which reduces micromanagement while preserving momentum.

Alex and her executive peers worked with cross-functional leaders to agree on decision rights: Who makes the final decision, who contributes input, who’s accountable for execution and who simply needs to be informed. She also established a disciplined flow for conversations: starting with facts, then exploring implications, moving to interpretation and leaving decisions for last. This rhythm ensured discussions stayed grounded while gradually building toward action.

3. AMPLIFY EXTERNAL VOICES

CEOs may dismiss internal dissent, but they rarely ignore clients, investors or board members. Alex began backing her recommendations with direct customer feedback and investor commentary. Hearing a client say, “We’re frustrated by the constant product pivots,” was far more persuasive than another executive making the same point would have been.

At the annual off-site, Alex’s company brought us in to facilitate strategy sessions. Together, we curated client stories, market insights and investor perspectives to anchor the discussion. The shift was immediate: Instinct-driven debates gave way to evidence-based dialogue, and the leadership team refocused on long-term priorities.

4. FORM A COALITION WITH PEERS

A lone voice of dissent is easy to ignore. A united leadership team is not. Alex invested in building trust with her peers, aligning on shared priorities before stepping into the boardroom.

To avoid overlap and blind spots, the group divided responsibilities into distinct categories: customer acquisition, customer retention and operational efficiency. Together, they then presented a unified, comprehensive strategy to the CEO.

This not only made their recommendations harder to dismiss but also replaced a sense of isolation with coordinated leadership.

5. PRACTICE STRATEGIC PATIENCE

With visionary or founder CEOs, change is rarely immediate. Progress happens in layers.

Alex began with small, visible wins — clarifying roles, refining meeting structure and incorporating client data into conversations. She then worked on developing new operating principles.

Finally, she learned to accept what couldn’t be influenced today while laying the groundwork for tomorrow. This layered approach strikes a balance between the need for short-term progress and the patience required for lasting change.

Navigating turbulence at work is an inevitable part of professional life, and it’s not often an enjoyable experience. Just because chaos is an unavoidable reality doesn’t mean you have to surrender to it, says Erica Roberts, an organizational leadership development consultant and executive career coach. “There’s no stability in the world today,” she says. “Change is constant, so rather than fear it, embrace it and adapt to it.”

Indeed, if you approach the chaos with an open mind and a measure of resilience, it might even have some upside for your career, says Rebecca Homkes, a lecturer at London Business School. The goal, she says, is to “make the most out of the changes by looking for new opportunities and possibilities.” Here’s how.

GIVE YOURSELF GRACE. Hectic changes at work can “stir up anxiety, anger and frustration,” says Roberts. Being affected by these dynamics isn’t a sign of weakness. “Allow yourself to feel your feelings,” she says. Change can be disorienting, so be gentle with yourself. It’s normal not to feel normal for a while. “When something happens at work, many people — especially high performers — think they need to go right back to thrive,” meaning pushing themselves to operate at peak performance, according to Homkes. “But you need to give yourself permission to be in survival mode,” at least temporarily. This doesn’t involve “moping around and feeling sorry for yourself.” Instead, it’s about taking “time to stabilize,” she says. If you don’t, “how do you explore the right reset for you and your career?”

BUILD RESILIENCE. In the immediate aftermath of upheaval, “a purposeful pause” is in order — but be careful not to let inertia linger. The risk is that it becomes “a holding pattern of fear” and stagnation, says Homkes. “When we talk about uncertainty we usually frame it as a terrible thing we have to deal with and overcome,” she says. But she suggests thinking about uncertainty from a different, and simpler, perspective: a series of future events that may or may not occur.

Rather than obsessively ruminating on what lies ahead or worrying about how things will unfold, Homkes proposes a thought exercise. Consider: “What could make me and what could break me?” Such an approach fosters resilience and helps you recognize that even in the worst-case scenarios — losing your job, getting reassigned, or having a project pulled — you wouldn’t be ruined. “You calm down,” she says. The ultimate goal is to shift from a defensive mindset of self-protection to fostering a growth mindset that embraces new possibilities.

SEEK SUPPORT. Research points to the many benefits of having strong work relationships — especially when things are hairy. “Hopefully, you’ve already established connections with your team so when chaos happens, you’re not isolated,” says Roberts. Decompressing with colleagues can feel cathartic and some venting is to be expected. Still, Roberts advises against relying too heavily on your colleagues for help. “Be discerning about how you process your feelings about what’s going on at your organization, and be careful about what you say even with good work friends,” she says. Your comments might be misinterpreted or shared without your knowledge. Whatever you do, resist the urge to post about work chaos on social media. “There’s danger in oversharing, and what you say could have future consequences, says Roberts. “It’s safer to confide in trusted personal networks outside of work,” such as your spouse, your friends, or a therapist.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, people across the globe faced new anxieties about their health, families, income and stability. For company leaders, all that upheaval put worker mental health into the can’t-ignore category of issues affecting their organizations.

A new survey of over 1,100 U.S. employees found that 90% of participants reported “at least minor levels of one mental health challenge,” with the top three stressors being U.S. politics, global events and personal finances.

It’s time for leaders to recommit to supporting their employees’ mental health — and their own. Harvard Business Review’s archive has plenty of strategies for how to do it right.

CHANGE SYSTEMS, NOT INDIVIDUALS

According to a trio of authors drawing on a wide body of workplace wellness research, individual-level interventions like well-being apps and employee assistance programs will likely be ineffective unless paired with systemic interventions.

To take a more holistic approach to workplace well-being, the authors suggest leaders become “behavioral architects” by embedding well-being strategies — and support — into all levels of the organization. Consider changes like increasing flexibility (even trying a four-day workweek) to give employees more control over their work-life balance.

CONSIDER IDENTITY

Workplace mental health expert Morra Aarons-Mele points out that “work is about people, and people are messy and difficult.” That may appear obvious at first glance, but identity — the interrelated elements that make up our concept of ourselves — is a critical dimension of how people experience and talk about mental health challenges. You can counter differing perspectives by creating an organizationwide shared language and baseline of knowledge about mental health.

LOOK TO YOUR OWN LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS

As a leader, your day-to-day behaviors can inadvertently cause your employees undue stress and anxiety. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic compiled a list of five common behaviors to watch out for. For example, are you adding unnecessary complexity by making employees guess what you’ll do next? Being more aware of how your actions affect your employees can help you “bring out the best in people even in the worst of times,” according to Chamorro-Premuzic.

IMPROVE UPTAKE OF PROGRAMS

Storytelling may also help increase employee participation in the mental health programs you’ve invested in. A team of behavioral scientists and organizational behavior scholars recently conducted a study of 2,400 employees at the Swiss pharma company Novartis to test their participation in the company’s peer-to-peer Mental Health First Aid support program.

Their initial findings showed that “simply hearing about colleagues’ struggles [could] normalize access to mental health support at work and increase uptake of an existing peer-to-peer support mental health program by as much as 8%.” That might not sound significant, but the authors note that at a large corporation like Novartis (comprising approximately 78,000 employees), the increased uptake could translate to 2,000 employees using the resource.

DON’T NEGLECT YOUR OWN MENTAL HEALTH

To be effective at leading others, it’s critical that you take care of yourself. If today’s roller coaster of uncertainty is (understandably) making you anxious, Morra Aarons-Mele emphasizes how important it is that you address it: “If you don’t look your anxiety in the face at some point, it will take you down.”

As a leader, taking a more holistic view of your employees’ mental health — and working through and sharing your own experiences — can make them feel more engaged and improve the health of your organization.

Given the chaos and uncertainty unleashed by the trade war, it is hard for companies participating in global supply chains to formulate even medium-term strategies. To find out how businesses are coping in the short term, we interviewed supply chain leaders at more than a dozen manufacturers and retailers inside and outside the United States. Here are six they shared with us.

1. BE HONEST WITH STAKEHOLDERS ABOUT THE LACK OF CLARITY.

There is a lot of uncertainty in the supply chain and across the company caused by the trade war and how it changes from day to day. Leadership that communicates about this openly and transparently both internally and with close supply chain partners can dispose of a lot of fear and angst that distracts and gets in the way of action.

2. GET ORGANIZED.

Reopen the war room created during the Covid-19 pandemic and bring together functional experts from finance, marketing, engineering, and supply chain. Conduct a cost and sourcing teardown analysis to gain a detailed financial and spatial understanding of how tariffs will impact raw materials, components, or products by source location.

3. CONSIDER PRODUCT-FORMULATION OPTIONS.

By evaluating the materials that go into each product from a tariff-adjusted cost perspective, companies can target viable alternatives and make appropriate adjustments.

4. CONSIDER LOCATION OPTIONS.

Several manufacturers shared how they have been working with suppliers to develop new warehouse operations designed to avoid higher tariff rates by shifting the location of work. They imported semi-finished goods, completed the final product assembly, and packaged the finished goods within local warehouses.

5. CONSIDER BUNDLING OPTIONS.

When multiple items are packaged and sold together as a product bundle, tariff classification becomes more complex. The “essential character” of the item grouping determines the tariff, but such an assessment can be subjective.

One retail supplier leveraged this opportunity by changing an individual item to a gift bundle through the addition of a celebration card. By making this change, the supplier was able to successfully reclassify the gift bundle under “stationery,” a classification that would be subjected to a lower tariff than the item would have been.

6. BUILD ON PREVIOUS ACTIONS.

One manufacturer shared that a few months before the trade war, it had decided to replace a Chinese supplier with a U.S.-based supplier in order to increase local sourcing and reduce reliance on Chinese supplies. When the tariffs kicked in, it was able to leverage this prior change and expand it purchases from the U.S.-based supplier. While competitors were scrambling to secure supply continuity and absorb higher landed costs of critical components, the manufacturer increased production to take advantage of competitors’ stockouts and price increases.

It is not feasible to redesign an entire supply chain during a quickly evolving trade war. So don’t bite off more than you can chew and don’t shoot for perfection. Keep in mind that your competitors face similar uncertainties, fluctuations, and dynamics. Those who take measured and prudent steps will ride out the storm better and emerge stronger than others who take a wait-and-see approach.

Some leaders don’t just respond to crises — they thrive in chaos, rushing in to “save the day,” often from problems they unknowingly created. Meet the “firefighter” — the boss who runs on urgency, constantly pulling their teams into high-stakes battles, rewarding reaction over strategy and exhausting heroics over efficiency.

A firefighter boss’s leadership style isn’t built for sustainability. So, what do you do if your boss refuses to let go of the fire hose? Based on my experience and research, here are some ways to navigate working for a firefighter boss.

CELEBRATE NONEMERGENCY WINS

If the only time a firefighter boss receives praise is after a last-minute save, they’ll keep chasing crises to recreate that moment. Instead, attempt to redirect the praise: Highlight moments where proactive planning saved time, effort or money. For example, during a team meeting, you could say:

“I wanted to discuss a new approach to recognizing our team’s efforts. While we often celebrate the number of fires extinguished, I believe we should shift our focus to prevention. Highlighting ‘days without incident’ can showcase our proactive planning and crisis prevention strategies. This model not only emphasizes safety and efficiency but also recognizes the value we bring to the organization by reducing emergencies and the subsequent damages.”

RESIST THEIR CHAOS — STAY CALM

The more frantic a firefighter boss’s team is, the more they believe their leadership style and reactive tactics are validated. But you don’t have to play along. Instead of immediately responding to every declared emergency, set boundaries and resist matching their intensity. To do that, you can ask clarifying questions, present data and reframe the situation in a way that prioritizes logic over reaction.

Maintaining composure and engaging in clear, candid communication can be an effective way to manage a high-stress boss. Staying calm not only diffuses the urgency displayed by the firefighter boss but also encourages a more measured and analytical response from them.

REDIRECT THEIR NEED FOR SPEED

Firefighter bosses often measure success by how quickly problems are solved, not by how effectively they’re prevented. Rather than opposing their reactive instincts, a more effective strategy is to redirect that energy toward long-term outcomes — by presenting proactive efforts as a series of fast, measurable wins.

For example, instead of saying, “We need six months to fix this system,” try, “In the next three weeks, we can reduce the risk of failure by 40% through a proactive fix.” This framing satisfies their need for speed while aligning them with the logic of sustainable improvement. The key is to translate stability into a language they would understand: momentum, metrics and results.

Firefighter bosses don’t need to be your downfall — but you must take control of how you engage with them. By shifting what they value, resisting their chaos, setting boundaries and redirecting their energy, you can thrive under their leadership without becoming collateral damage.

In the end, remember that the best way to beat a firefighter boss is to make sure there’s nothing left for them to put out.