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Being a leader is easy in good times. When markets are stable, economies are growing, and the political landscape feels predictable, even the most unremarkable leader can be made to look good by a favorable wind at their back.

Corporate leaders are now steering through fierce winds. I’m worried that too many will prove to have been passengers when there was smooth sailing and now lack the skills and courage to lead.

During the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, which coincided with Donald Trump’s inauguration, I was dismayed at the behavior of many CEOs who not much earlier had been fighting climate change and working to build an inclusive stakeholder capitalism. One after another, they publicly praised Trump’s supposedly “pro-business” agenda, rushed to donate to his presidential library fund, and backpedaled from causes they had once embraced with apparent conviction.

Some of them seemed to have been faking it all along, and are now enthused about returning to an older, more mercantile version of capitalism. Others have privately admitted to acting from fear, self-censoring in the hope of not becoming a presidential target. We will carry on doing the right thing on climate, they reassured me, we just won’t talk about it anymore — an approach already christened “greenhushing”.

Adaptation is part of leadership, of course, and pragmatism has its place. The art of diplomacy is now a requirement of the job, and most CEOs will find they have much to learn. Political winds will shift, as they always have, but basic principles should not bend in the bluster. The key to effective diplomacy, as the saying goes, is to present an iron fist in a velvet glove.

However, by changing their tune to fit the current political mood, business leaders risk losing the trust of those on whom their long-term success ultimately depends, especially their employees and customers. Trust, once eroded, is not easily restored. A generation of young people can quickly become (even further) disillusioned if they see leaders who spoke of values in boom years unceremoniously discard them now. While Tesla’s sudden fall from favor with its customers may be an extreme case, the risk of a consumer backlash should not be lost on leaders who are considering bowing to White House pressure.‍

“By changing their tune to fit the current political mood, business leaders risk losing trust.”

Today’s CEOs must be clear about what lines they will not cross. Truth, democracy, human dignity, and basic decency are not positions to be negotiated, but principles to be defended. Business leaders should understand this better than most, having built their companies, reputations, and wealth on the stability provided by democratic institutions, free societies, and rule-based order. Define what your organization stands for and hold that line, however uncomfortable. Silence can and will be judged as complicity — or worse, enabling.

Second, engage with those who disagree, but from a place of principle, not expediency. The strongest leaders do not wait to see
which way the wind blows; they adapt and shape the conditions in which they operate. Yes, DEI or ESG may not always have worked and may even have invited accusations of virtue-signalling. Take that not as a reason to walk away but as an opportunity to do better.

Third, think long-term. The next generation of talent, employees, customers, and clients are watching closely. They are not looking for performative gestures, but for conviction.

Finally, work together. When companies, CEOs, and civic institutions act in unison to defend fundamental values, they set the terms of engagement rather than being dictated to by opposing forces. There is both strength and safety in numbers.

I had hoped that this would be the prevailing vibe of the Business Roundtable meeting in March, the first test of its reaction to the Trump administration’s new approach to the economy. Instead, the group’s refusal to offer a collective response to the administration suggested a crisis not just of courage, but of coherence. By avoiding confrontation with a volatile White House, many CEOs are betting that they can safeguard quarterly earnings and regulatory goodwill. In doing so, they risk something far greater: the erosion of public trust in business as a force for good.

The (probably apocryphal) warning from Benjamin Franklin as he signed the Declaration of Independence is still as apt today: “We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately”.