Leadership Lessons from a Typhoon
What happens to your leadership when the weather changes?
Travel has a way of revealing who we are.
Recently, while travelling in Vietnam, I was reminded how closely our travel style mirrors our leadership style.
Just over a week into our holiday, we heard that a typhoon was tracking toward central Vietnam — as a category 5 and forecast to hit the coast at exactly the time we were due to be there.
At that moment, the type of traveller you are really matters.
Some people plan every minute detail of a trip: every night of accommodation, every internal connection, every tour locked in well in advance. It’s neat, efficient, and reassuring — until something changes. When disruption arrives, the cost of changing course can be high: fees, stress, and a sense of being stuck with decisions that no longer fit reality.
Others plan differently. They book the key elements that provide direction and intent — flights in and out of the country, the experiences that are likely to book out, the first few nights to land and orient themselves — and then they leave space. Space to respond. Space to choose again.
We did the latter.
Because we hadn’t over‑engineered our journey, we were able to stay longer in the north of Vietnam while the typhoon passed. No cancellation fees. No frantic re‑planning. Just a calm adjustment to changing conditions.
And it struck me how clearly this mirrors leadership.
Some leaders operate like tightly scheduled itineraries. Everything is predetermined. Success depends on conditions staying exactly as expected. When the environment shifts — a market changes, a team dynamic evolves, an unexpected event arrives — altering course takes enormous effort. Friction within the team increases. People feel constrained and frustrated.
Other leaders focus on the fundamentals.
They provide a clear sense of vision and direction — where we’re going and why it matters. They establish key parameters and guardrails. And then they empower and trust their people with enough flexibility to adapt as reality unfolds.
This kind of leadership doesn’t mean a lack of planning. Just like good travel, it’s intentional. But it recognises that uncertainty isn’t a failure of planning — it’s a condition of the environment.
“Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change”
The question, for leaders, is this:
Are you creating plans so rigid that any change becomes costly?
Or are you giving your team the clarity they need, along with the space to respond wisely when conditions change?
Because resilience — in travel and in leadership — is rarely about controlling every detail.
It’s about knowing what truly matters, and staying flexible enough to adjust the path when the weather changes
A call to action:
As you lead this week, notice where you might be over‑booking certainty.
Where could a little more space — clearer fundamentals paired with greater trust — allow your team to respond more wisely to what’s unfolding, rather than what was predicted?
Sometimes the most effective leadership move isn’t to double down on the plan — it’s to adjust the route.