There’s a lot of talk about leadership requiring unwavering determination. In my experience, it’s more about finding a balance between conviction and adaptability.

I’ve had to learn that balancing act the hard way, from co-founding startups to my current work in GenAI. In these fields the ground moves beneath your feet almost daily, and going with the flow is a survival skill.

The leadership paradox

Leadership often means forcing things into existence, which demands a certain bullheadedness. But you regularly run into forces stronger than your will, and then you have to adjust on the fly. The art is in knowing when to push through and when to adapt.

I’ve faced plenty of situations where market conditions shifted overnight. In one of my startups, a major platform changed its API policies and we had to pivot our product strategy quickly. How fast you can make an informed call in moments like that can make or break a company.

At the executive level, the hard part is knowing when to change course and how to adjust quickly. As a CEO, I’ve learned that my decisions set the tone for the entire organization, so I have to balance the need for stability against the flexibility to adapt.

The best way I’ve found to manage this is to keep challenging my own assumptions, even after I’ve made decisions based on them, and especially when new information arrives. When a competitor launches a product with a similar or better value proposition, you have two choices: keep your head down and stick to the plan, or take stock and adjust. Knowing which path to take requires experience and a deep understanding of your principles.

One practical tip I’ve found useful: schedule regular assumption audits. Set aside time each month to review your key strategic assumptions. What new information have you gathered since making them? How might it change your approach? What risks or opportunities are you overlooking?

The balancing act

The challenge is adapting without looking unprincipled or spineless. Hold strong, clear principles while staying open to reevaluation. Be transparent about your mental model, your priorities, and your focus, and when something material changes, make it clear that you’re reassessing.

Clearly communicating my decision-making process to the team keeps trust and alignment intact even when plans change. When we decided to shift our target market based on new data, I shared the analysis behind the decision and tied it back to our core mission and values.

There are risks at both ends. Being too capricious keeps you from holding focus long enough to make a real impact. Being too steadfast leads to missed opportunities and, eventually, obsolescence.

A few habits help me hold that balance. I block out two hours every week for uninterrupted reflection on the company’s direction, independent of day-to-day deliverables. I read industry news, talk to customers, and check in with my team daily to keep a finger on the pulse of our market. When we adjust course, I explain my reasoning and how it fits our overall vision, and after major strategy shifts I hold all-hands meetings to walk through the changes and answer questions. And we’ve built a culture of candor, where people are encouraged to voice concerns and alternative viewpoints.

When the ground moves

In tech right now, going with the flow matters more than ever. AI, blockchain, and IoT keep reshaping the playing field, and you have to be ready to pivot quickly while holding a clear long-term vision. When we saw what large language models could mean for our industry, we quickly formed a task force to figure out how to build them into our product, and that let us move early without losing sight of our core mission.

As you lead your own team, ask yourself every so often whether you’re being too rigid or too capricious, and how you could strike a better balance. The whole art is being both rooted and flexible, like a tree that bends with the wind but doesn’t break.