LEADERSHIP by Rebecca Contreras Pivoting with purpose: Turning disruption into a strategic advantage It is a deliberate decision to evolve. That means stepping back and reassessing where your business truly creates value. Andrii Yalanskyi / Shutterstock.com There are moments in every business when what once felt stable no longer is. A key revenue stream shifts. Priorities change. The ground beneath your strategy starts to move in ways you didn’t anticipate. As CEOs, we don’t always get advance notice when those moments will come—but we can be certain they will. I’ve learned that the true test of leadership isn’t how you perform during seasons of growth. It’s how you respond when stability breaks. When something you’ve built your business around is suddenly at risk, you are faced with a choice: react out of urgency or lead with intention. In today’s environment, disruption is no longer occasional—it’s constant. The leaders who succeed are not the ones who avoid it, but the ones who navigate it with clarity and purpose. The pivot mindset: leading through loss and change The first step in any meaningful pivot is accepting reality. That may sound simple, but it’s often the hardest part. As leaders, we carry responsibility—not just for the business, but for our people. It can be tempting to delay difficult decisions or hold onto what once worked, hoping stability will return. But leadership requires honesty. You have to acknowledge what has changed before you can move forward. From there, your role as CEO becomes incredibly clear. Your team is looking to you for direction, and how you show up in that moment matters. Do you create calm, or do you contribute to uncertainty? Do you lead with purpose, or react out of fear? Leadership in these moments requires clarity over panic and intention over impulse. A pivot is not simply a reaction to loss. It is a deliberate decision to evolve. That means stepping back and reassessing where your business truly creates value. It requires discipline— deciding not only where to invest, but also where to pull back. Every organization has strengths, but not all of them will carry forward into the next phase of growth. The most successful pivots are grounded in purpose. When your decisions are anchored in why your business exists and the value it delivers, you create consistency—even in times of change. That purpose becomes your guide as you navigate uncertainty. Turning the pivot into growth: AI as an accelerator At some point in the pivot process, every CEO reaches a critical decision: do we retreat, or do we evolve? It’s a natural instinct to protect what you’ve built by scaling back. But there is also an opportunity in disruption—an opportunity to modernize, to rethink how you operate, and to position your business for what comes next. For us, that meant making a deliberate choice to invest in the future. One of the ways we’ve done that is by thoughtfully integrating artificial intelligence into how we deliver value—not as a trend to follow, but as a strategic capability to build. AI is often talked about in broad terms, but at its core, it’s a tool. For business leaders, the question isn’t whether AI will matter—it’s how to apply it in a way that strengthens your organization. That starts with focusing on real business needs. Where can you improve efficiency? Where can you scale more effectively? Where can you deliver better outcomes? Our approach has been intentional. We’re not chasing hype—we’re building capability. We’re looking at how AI can enhance the work our teams are already doing, improve how we serve our clients, and create 84 enterprising Women
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