By Francesco Buquicchio, Megan Trice, and Greig Schneider
Leadership has always been hard. But has it ever been this hard? War and rising geopolitical turmoil are combining with preexisting disruptions such as rapid advances in technology, climate change, and the impact of social media to create new levels of executive angst.
The once-ubiquitous acronym VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) is being nudged aside by a different label—BANI (brittle, anxious, nonlinear, incomprehensible)—that better captures how the landscape now feels to leaders.
Pick any recent data scan. All reflect the extent to which leaders feel that the events they must respond to—and lead through—cannot be easily interpreted or predicted. Accenture’s Global Disruption Index rose 4% from 2011 to 2016 and then tripled from 2017 to 2022. And that was before Ukraine and the recent trade policy changes coming from the United States. In a 2024 Egon Zehnder survey of almost 500 CEOs, 95% anticipated major “groundbreaking systemic change” over the next decade—but perhaps not in less than two years.
All of this can land heavily on the shoulders of senior leaders. Decades of experience and established playbooks no longer apply. Alongside new and daunting expectations, such as the responsibility to weigh in—or not—on complex social issues, there is the personal anxiety that many feel about the world we are leaving to our children. Taken together, they can be overwhelming.
But leaders cannot afford to surrender to overwhelm, as the impact of doing so can be greatly magnified. Respond badly, and leaders bleed stress into the system and make themselves part of the problem; respond well, and they become a critical “calm in the storm” for their organizations.
To navigate overwhelm effectively, executives must unlearn some of the lessons that have guided them in the past and develop some new muscles to help them tackle the new normal.
In our work placing and helping develop senior leaders, we have seen that the ability to lead through complexity has become an essential skill—and a differentiator. In this article, we share strategies and approaches from top leadership coaches to help you get this right.
The First Step Is to Reprogram Ourselves
In Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience, Brené Brown cites work from researcher Carol Gohm, who describes being overwhelmed as a state where emotions become so intense that people find it difficult to focus on or even describe them. As Brown writes, “On a scale from 1 to 10, I’m feeling my emotions at about a 10, paying attention to them at about a 5, and understanding them at about a 2 … there’s just too much going on to manage effectively.” Absent the ability to make a conscious response, a stress response takes over.
David Noble, coauthor of the book Real-Time Leadership, coach to many CEOs, and senior advisor at Egon Zehnder, says that what leaders need to do is “create a space, however small, between stimulus and response” to allow centered thinking to replace the stress reflex. In the moment, this can be as simple as sitting back and taking a few deep breaths—for best nervous system results, extend the exhale—or going for a short walk outside.
But for many of us, our inner programming can get in the way of even those simple steps. Who has time to go for a short walk outside? The experts’ answer: You don’t have time not to.
In these situations, executives’ mental and emotional wiring is often working against them, falling into the natural stress responses of fight, flight, or freeze:
• Fight: Doubling down on work. Leaders feel that if they work harder—longer hours, fewer breaks, maniacal focus—they can muscle their way out of the craziness. Eventually, this path is likely to be accompanied by feelings of exhaustion, cynicism, and anger, as well as actual sickness or physical pain.
• Flight: Running away to pursue distractions or things that can be controlled. These can include drinking or other unhealthy habits, as well as reversion to playbooks that may have worked in the past but are now outdated. Symptoms include feelings of isolation and uncontrolled emotions.
• Freeze: Often experienced as analysis paralysis or overinvesting in gathering data and information, trying to find certainty where there is none to be found. This can include a feeling of confusion or “brain fog.”
Does any of this sound familiar? The hard truth is that the steps required to work through our overwhelm are often the opposite of where our instincts take us.
Ways to Play Offense against Overwhelm
Ricardo Sunderland, CEO coach, Egon Zehnder partner, and author of the book The Energy Advantage, advises that “the only way to get out of overwhelm is to lean in to overwhelm—play offense, not defense.”
But what does offense look like? Overwhelm can come from many places—increased volume of issues, increased uncertainty, increased disruption—or a combination of all three. Regardless of the source, in our coaching work we recommend the following four approaches.
1. Recognize the problem.
Senior leaders can be reluctant to admit that they are overwhelmed. This is not helpful. They need to learn to step back and see what is happening both outside and inside themselves.
Stepping back requires space. While it may not feel productive to take a walk, a bike ride, or time to meditate, doing so can calm the brain and bring clarity of thinking. Leaders need to be able to see when old coping mechanisms, such as doubling down on work, are not serving them—and may be sending alarm signals to their organizations.
Instead, create space. Slow down. Breathe. Shift the paradigm from “I need to be in control” to “I need to lead with presence and clarity.”
2. Ground yourself.
It may sound obvious, but having clarity about one’s values and purpose should not be taken for granted; it can be an essential asset in fighting overwhelm and exhaustion. When no playbook applies, core principles provide a compass that can de-stress making individual decisions.
Amy Elizabeth Fox is CEO of Mobius Executive Leadership and a frequent leader of transformational programs that, among other things, help CEOs better understand their own motivations; she is an expert on overwhelm. She notes that executives who “know what really matters to them” and have guiding principles are better able to make decisions amid great uncertainty.
3. Unload.
To create essential space, leaders can turn to some classic Leadership 101 lessons.
First, prioritize. Take time to step back and identify what is most important. Work on those A-level priority items first without trying to also tackle Bs and Cs—not to mention email!
Second, delegate more, not less. Identify the areas—often thinking areas as opposed to doing areas—that only you can do and adjust your priorities and calendars to create the time they demand. And then give clear guidance to your people as to what you need them to do.
4. Take care of yourself.
The airlines are right with that old “put on your own oxygen mask first” advice; it’s difficult to help others if you don’t take care of yourself. Do not feed the overwhelm by cutting back on essentials such as sleep, exercise, and connection to family. Despite the often-loud voices in some executives’ heads, these are not luxuries, and they are not self-indulgent; they are paths to better decisions.
Grinding away not only erodes one’s energy reserves but also allows stress to seep into one’s teams as well as families. Leaders who overcome overwhelm show up as engaged and motivated despite the chaos, reassuring their organizations. Grinding can have the opposite effect.
The world is unlikely to get less overwhelming anytime soon. To respond effectively, senior executives must learn to lead differently. This requires going against some deeply embedded instincts, such as the impulse to work even harder, to follow a playbook that no longer applies, or to gather even more information.
Instead, leaders must get comfortable with the need to create the space to think. They must recognize the power of being grounded. Being clear about purpose and values is not just happy talk or a nice-to-have; such clarity provides essential guideposts for decision making. Leaders must see the value of self-care as a path to spreading positive energy within their organizations versus accentuating the overwhelm.
In a BANI world, developing these capabilities will not only lead to better management; it also can generate competitive advantage by helping leaders and teams see, and then seize, opportunities amid the chaos.
To learn more about Egon Zehnder, visit www.egonzehnder.com
Francesco Buquicchio, based in Milan, is global CEO of Egon Zehnder.
Megan Trice, based in Minneapolis, is a leadership advisor in Egon Zehnder’s Consumer Practice.
Greig Schneider, based in Boston, is a partner and former leader of Egon Zehnder’s Global Leadership Advisory Practice.