Leading Through Constant Disruption

5 Steps to Anchor and Adapt Leadership during Turbulent Times

As a non-family key executive in family businesses for over 40 years, I’ve had a front-row seat to some of the most significant periods of change and challenge.

Have you felt it, too? That the last 5-6 years have had more upheaval than perhaps the last 25 combined? From the COVID pandemic to inflationary pressures, supply chain disruptions, shifting trade/tariff policies, energy cost increases, and geopolitical conflict, the pace and scale of disruption have been relentless. The 2020s have tested even the most resilient organizations.

For family enterprises, the challenge is no longer just strategic planning and execution – it’s doing both amid continuous uncertainty and an unceasing stream of new issues.

Family businesses have always operated with a unique blend of long-term vision and personal stewardship. So how can a family business stay committed to a long-term direction while remaining agile enough to respond to sudden market shifts? The answer lies in building a dual-capability mindset: disciplined strategy paired with structured flexibility.

1. Reaffirm the long-term Vision

• Family businesses often excel here because they are less driven by quarterly earnings and more focused on generational value. That advantage should be protected. Leadership must clearly define what remains constant: core values, mission, and long-term objectives and direction. These act as a “north star” during turbulent periods, ensuring that short-term decisions don’t erode the business’s identity or future positioning.

• At the same time, the path to that vision must become more dynamic. Traditional strategic plans – rigid, 5-year-plus roadmaps – are no longer sufficient. Instead, family businesses should adopt rolling strategic plans that are revisited and “tweaked” as necessary on at least a biannual basis. This allows organizations to adjust assumptions, reallocate resources, and respond to emerging risks or opportunities without abandoning their broader goals.

2. Scenario planning should become a core discipline

• Rather than betting on a single forecast, businesses should model several plausible futures: continued inflation, demand contraction, supply shocks, or regulatory changes. This doesn’t mean predicting the future perfectly – it means preparing decision frameworks in advance. When disruption hits, leadership can act quickly because they’ve already thought through the implications.

• Think of it like using Waze – there is a “most-favored” direction and other options presented. If traffic builds on your chosen route, there are options to switch to another that may give a more favorable outcome.

3. Make sure you have “good ears” for your market

• There needs to be a feedback loop from the front lines of dealing with customers and suppliers up to your decision-making leadership group and a venue for discussing. The faster you hear about an issue, the quicker you can develop a response or strategy shift. Having top leadership spending time directly with customers and suppliers to augment regular interactions can spotlight these issues faster.

4. Build financial flexibility

• Strong balance sheets, access to liquidity, and conservative leverage provide options in uncertain times. Family businesses that maintain this discipline can invest when competitors pull back, pivot operations more easily, and absorb short-term shocks without compromising long-term plans.

5. Invest your time in communication – both within the family and across the organization

• Uncertainty amplifies anxiety and misalignment can slow decision-making at the worst possible time. Team members are tied to the news cycle more than ever with their mobile devices. They will draw their own conclusions on possible impacts on the business (and their job security) if you don’t help shape them. Transparent, frequent communication helps ensure that family stakeholders, management, and employees remain informed and aligned, even as conditions change.

• In uncertain times, the goal can’t be to eliminate surprises – that’s impossible. Instead, it’s to build an organization that can absorb twists and turns without losing direction. Family businesses are uniquely positioned to do this well. By anchoring themselves in long-term purpose while embracing short-term adaptability, they can not only endure volatility but emerge stronger from it. Be agile, my friend.

Michael Coulton is a 5 MOUNTAIN Advisor & Coach with over 40 years’ experience working with successful family businesses in roles including marketing, new product development, engineering, operations management, and executive leadership. He has worked through successful growth, generational transitions, acquisitions, divestitures, plant relocations, and site startups in multiple industries.

He brings a balance of Industrial Engineering and People Orientation to his leadership approach to helping businesses. It starts with Planning – creating a well thought-out plan at the strategic and operational level; People – developing a Culture that inspires and people want to be a part of, choosing Read More…

Reach out if you’d like to learn more about how DVFBC’s 5 MOUNTAIN® Strategic Planning Process can guide your enterprising family.

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