How C.A.L.M. helps leaders make better decisions in uncertain times

When a long-running McKinsey study tells us that around 70 percent of large-scale transformations fail to achieve their objectives, it is a signal every leader should take seriously. Time and again, the root causes are traced back to ownership, behaviors, and culture. In other words, the way we lead matters as much as the solutions we implement.

Recent studies highlight the human cost behind this reality. One survey found that around 45 percent of people involved in ongoing change have suffered burnout, and roughly a third would consider leaving their organization because of constant disruption. In this context, staying grounded is essential if we want to lead with clarity and protect the resilience of our teams.

Over time, I realized that tools and operating models will continue to evolve, but how I show up as a leader must remain consistent. That is how C.A.L.M. was born: a personal leadership mantra that I apply to make better decisions, steady execution, and support the people around me. 

When I shared it publicly for the first time at a client conference in 2024, the response was immediate and genuine. Many participants wanted to understand how they could apply the same mindset in their own environments. 

That reaction confirmed why C.A.L.M. resonates: because it addresses the real pressures leaders face every day. With that in mind, it’s worth understanding what each pillar represents and how it works in practice.

What is C.A.L.M.?

Many leadership experts emphasize the importance of having a clear personal leadership philosophy because it creates consistency in behavior and culture over time. For me, C.A.L.M. is that philosophy expressed in four practical, everyday behaviors: Confident, Advocate, Learn, Mentor. 

Confident means trusting in your skill set, knowing your strengths, and allowing your passion for the work to show. Advocate is about speaking up clearly, for yourself and for others. It means asking directly for the resources, alignment, or focus that your team needs. Learn is a commitment to continuous growth through both formal programs or certifications, and informal channels such as self-study and peer exchanges. Mentor is the pillar that brings everything back to people. It includes both formal programs with clear goals and informal conversations that extend beyond roles or organizational boundaries.

These four pillars are transversal. They do not live in separate boxes; leaders can draw on them in decision-making, in people leadership, and in execution.

Confident – Deciding without perfect data

Confidence is not about having all the answers. It is about having enough insight, experience, and judgment to move forward when the data is incomplete. Most strategic decisions are made under uncertainty and delaying them often creates more risk than moving forward.

Another McKinsey’s research shows that leaders spend around 37 percent of their time on decisions and believe much of that time is used ineffectively, which directly affects organizational performance.

Confidence begins with doing the work. I expect my teams and myself to gather the best available information, test assumptions, and bring diverse perspectives to the table. But there is almost never a moment when everything lines up neatly. At some point, a decision still requires a “leap of faith” informed by experience, pattern recognition, and an honest view of the organization’s appetite for risk.

Once that decision is made, confidence then means standing behind it, communicating it clearly, and managing the consequences. Teams take their cue from how leaders show up in these moments. Clarity builds momentum, while hesitation or endless revisiting breeds anxiety. But confidence is not rigidity. Acting without perfect data also means staying open to learning and adjusting when new information emerges.

Advocate – Asking clearly and unblocking progress

Advocacy is a core part of the executive role. It means both for the organization and for your teams. In practice, that often comes down to articulating a position, asking directly for the resources or decisions needed, and challenging the status quo when it is no longer serving the outcome.

The data behind this is clear. Research based on Google’s Project Aristotle shows that teams with high psychological safety are more likely to report higher performance, retain top talent, and engage in strong collaboration practices. 

A recent example from my own work illustrates this. I was involved in a complex software vendor negotiation where progress had stalled. There were technical issues, commercial disagreements, and, importantly, personality dynamics on both sides. Continuing as we were would not have unlocked progress.

My response was to advocate for a different structure: a cross-functional task force with a clear mandate and daily focus. Once ownership and accountability were clarified, the negotiation moved forward.

Advocacy also has a personal dimension. Part of my responsibility as an executive is to support people whose work may be overlooked by sponsoring them, ensuring they are included in key discussions, or simply voicing their perspective when they cannot. Over time, these acts of advocacy compound and influence who gets opportunities and how inclusive the organization becomes.

Learn – Turning smart attempts and failures into better judgment

Learning has never been a separate activity for me that happens “outside” the work. It is part of how I lead every day. In fast-moving environments, relying only on experience is not enough; leaders need to keep upgrading their judgment and perspective.

LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning research has shown that around 94 percent of employees would stay longer at a company that invests in their development, which tells us that learning is both personally valuable and strategically important.

The learn in C.A.L.M. operates on multiple levels. There is formal learning: targeted programs, certifications, and executive courses that deepen my understanding of topics. There is also informal learning: staying curious, reading widely, engaging with peers, listening carefully in meetings, and reflecting on outcomes. In reality, most of our learning as leaders happens while we are doing the work, not in a classroom.

A critical part of learning for me is how I approach what I call “smart attempts” that do not go as planned. Not every decision, project, or appointment will succeed. The question then is not whether failure occurs; it is whether you extract value from it. Research on “intelligent failure” echoes this: well-designed efforts in new territory can provide the data we need to improve future decisions.

This mindset shows up clearly in how I place people into stretch roles. I believe in giving colleagues opportunities to grow, but when projects go south, my first instinct is to learn, not to blame. I ask questions such as did I set expectations clearly? Did I provide the right support? Or were there structural barriers, cultural dynamics, or timing issues that made success difficult?

Over time, these experiences build a pattern library that improves judgment and signals to the organization that taking a stretch role is part of learning, not a career-defining make or break risk.

Mentor – Building two-way growth engines

Mentoring is the pillar where C.A.L.M. becomes most visibly about other people. It is not something I do “when there is time”; it is one of the most effective ways I support performance, culture, and succession, and it is also where I learn continuously from others.

I see mentoring in two forms. Formal mentoring follows a defined structure with clear goals and accountability. Informal mentoring grows more organically through conversations that often extend beyond job descriptions or organizational boundaries. Both matter: one creates direction, the other creates connection.

The impact of mentoring is not only anecdotal. Long-term studies have shown that employees who participate in mentoring programs have retention rates reaching around 72 percent for mentees and 69 percent for mentors, compared with roughly 49 percent for non-participants. Mentees were promoted up to five times more often than colleagues without mentors, and mentors themselves were also more likely to advance. For organizations, what are perceived as “soft benefits” translate directly into stronger pipelines and more resilient leadership benches.

In my own experience, formal mentoring often begins when someone feels stuck. Our work together is to unblock the situation: preparing for a difficult conversation, exploring new roles, or acknowledging that the next step may lie outside the organization. What matters is that they leave with clarity and agency.

Informal mentoring can look very different. One colleague, introduced for a role on my team, ultimately wanted broader, more international experiences. Through open conversations, it became clear that a consulting role in the Middle East aligned far better with her aspirations. Supporting that decision reinforced something I believe strongly: mentoring is two-way. I learned as much from that process as she did.

Recognizing drift and resetting to C.A.L.M.

Even with a clear mantra, there are days when C.A.L.M. starts to drift. The signs usually start small: information overload, too many parallel threads, and not enough time to process them properly. Another is excessive context switching. When I move rapidly from one topic to another without space to think, I can feel my decision quality and focus begin to erode.

Research suggests that frequent switching can cost knowledge workers up to 40% of their effective capacity, once you add together the small losses in attention and reorientation throughout the day. 

When I notice these patterns, my first step is to pause and reorganize what is on my plate: grouping related topics, clarifying interdependencies, and separating what truly requires a decision now from what can wait. Sometimes this means blocking focused time; other times it means resetting meetings, so discussions are more coherent and less fragmented.

Recognizing drift is part of the discipline. No leader can stay perfectly balanced, but we can develop habits that help us notice when we are off-center and take deliberate steps to return to the way we intend to lead.

To sum up, C.A.L.M. is a simple mantra for complex leadership

No matter how quickly our organizations evolve, leadership remains a human discipline. The quality of our decisions, our actions, and our relationships ultimately determines whether transformation takes root. 

That is why I rely on C.A.L.M. It keeps me grounded in how I want to lead, regardless of the uncertainty around me. But I do not believe C.A.L.M. needs to be everyone’s mantra. Some leaders will recognize themselves in it immediately; others may prefer to define a different set of principles that fits their own context and values. 

What matters is the discipline of making that choice consciously. When you know what you stand for as a leader, you bring consistency to your teams, and consistency is one of the most valuable things you can offer in a world where change is constant, and transformation fatigue is real.