written by Coach JoyGenea and notion AI. Image by Gemini
I’m writing this from Myrtle Beach, and I can’t stop watching how the ocean reshapes the shoreline.
One minute, the sand looks settled.
Then the tide pulls.
A wave pushes.
A new edge forms. More seashells land in new locations. Rocks push back and the sand around them slowly disappears until all of a sudden, the rock starts to roll with the tide.
And what looked “solid” is different again.
That’s leadership in 2026.
Change isn’t coming in quarterly cycles anymore. It’s showing up daily, especially with AI accelerating everything: how we communicate, how we create, how we delegate, how we hire, and how we make decisions.
And if you’re an unconventional leader, especially if you have ADHD, dyslexic, or autistic traits, this pace can feel like two things at the same time:
- Energizing (because your brain is built for patterns, innovation, and moving fast)
- Exhausting (because the world around you still expects linear plans and predictable progress)
So, let’s talk about how to lead through rapid change without losing your people or yourself.
The Hidden Trap: When the Team Feels Like a Pirate Ship
Sometimes leadership starts to feel like you’re the captain of Jack Sparrow’s pirate ship with your employees.
It’s noisy.
It’s chaotic.
It’s unpredictable.
It can feel like everyone is doing their own thing and you’re trying to steer the ship while the crew argues about the map.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth (and also the empowering truth):
- When it feels like a pirate ship, it usually has less to do with “your people being difficult…”
- And more to do with the leadership system you’ve built (or haven’t built yet).
This is not blame.
This is agency.
Because if it’s a system, you can redesign it.
Recently, while I was coaching a client, she described her team and their behavior like this. She couldn’t decide if they were intentionally trying to sabotage everything or if they were just that out of sync with the company goals. She did not love me when I asked my next question. “What has been going on with you recently at work?” “What is new or different about how you are showing up?” It took a few answers before she pointed out that one of the key departments, which has a close connection to customers, had a manager who was not managing well and was instead creating chaos. We had talked about the situation before, a couple of times, she just hadn’t realized how much that person was changing the whole culture of the company. She could see it now, and how her leadership had shifted from calm confident to fear based and that just added to the chaos this manager was creating.
The Beach Lesson: Leadership That Ebb and Flows
The beach isn’t “stable.” It’s resilient.
It changes constantly, and it keeps being a beach. It is clear in its role, and its job.
That’s the kind of leadership that works right now:
- Not rigid
- Not perfectionistic
- Not “I’ll set it once and never touch it again”
Instead:
- Ebb (pull back, listen, let things settle)
- Flow (communicate, adjust, re-direct)
- Build (create structures that hold even while everything moves)
If you’re leading in rapid change, your job isn’t to prevent change.
Your job is to create direction inside it even when you don’t know exactly where you’re going.
Victorinox (the company most people mean when they say “the Swiss Army Knife company”) started as a cutler’s workshop in Switzerland in 1884, and it’s stayed relevant for more than 140 years by anchoring itself in a few steady values—quality, precision, reliability—while still evolving what “being prepared” looks like in each era. They’re famous for the Swiss Army Knife, but they didn’t stay trapped by that one icon: over time they expanded into multiple product categories, including “Travel Gear,” which is where backpacks and luggage come in. It’s a great example of a legacy brand that didn’t abandon its identity; it simply translated it, moving from “a tool that helps you handle whatever happens” available right from your pocket (knives) to “a system that helps you handle whatever happens” available right on your back.
What Unconventional Leaders Need Right Now
Here are 5 anchors I’m seeing unconventional leaders need most when everything is moving fast:
- A simple, repeatable message
Your team needs to hear the same “why we’re doing this” message more than once.
Not because they’re slow, but because change creates cognitive overload. - Clear ownership (not just tasks)
If you delegate tasks but keep the decision-making, people stay dependent. This is NOT the time for that crap.
If you delegate ownership, people grow and the ship steadies. Less telling what to do style leadership and more empowerment and coaching style leadership. - Short feedback loops
When the environment changes weekly, your check-ins can’t be quarterly.
Keep it light, keep it consistent, keep it real. - Permission to adapt
Your team needs to know that adjusting course isn’t failure.
It’s leadership. It’s progress. It’s survival. - A leader who can regulate
Your nervous system becomes the thermostat.
When you pause, breathe, and respond rather than react, you build trust and confidence in yourself and in them. Everyone performs better.
Where AI Fits (Without Losing the Human Part)
AI is not just “a tool.” It’s a speed multiplier.
That means:
- A good leadership system gets better faster
- A messy leadership system gets messier faster
Dave Ramsey used to say that about money. He would say, “People fear money, when really what they fear is themselves amplified. All having more money does is make you more of what you already are. If you were a jerk, you are a bigger jerk. If you are kind and giving, you now have more to give.” It applies here too; AI just amplifies what is already there. If you have a good culture, your culture will continue to improve.
So don’t start with more apps.
Start with clarity.
Then use AI to support what matters:
- Turning your vision into repeatable communication
- Drafting SOPs and checklists
- Creating meeting agendas and recap notes
- transforming and automating sales
- Capturing ideas before they disappear
- Automating standard processes
- Doing deep research and delivering concepts for next actions.
AI can help you steer, but it can’t decide where the ship should go.
That’s still you.
A Simple Leadership Reset (Try This This Week)
If leadership feels like constant waves right now, here’s a reset you can do in 20 minutes:
- Write down: “What is changing right now?”
- Write down: “What must stay true no matter what?”
- This one is GOLD. Write down: “What’s one decision I’ve been avoiding because I want more certainty?”
- Choose the smallest next step that moves the ship forward.
Then tell your team the same way you’d tell a friend:
- Here’s what’s changing.
- Here’s what isn’t.
- Here’s what we’re doing next.
That’s leadership during monumental change.
Final Thought: The Beach Doesn’t Apologize for Changing
The beach doesn’t say:
“I’m sorry I’m different today.”
It just responds to what’s real.
If you’re an unconventional leader, this is your invitation:
- Stop apologizing for needing to adapt.
- Stop believing you must have the perfect plan.
- Start building leadership systems that can move with the tide.
Change is here and it is happening. Like the Ocean, you can’t contain it, you can only learn to play and surf with it.
How are you doing with your surfing? What could you do better?
If you’d love support upgrading your leadership, especially as an unconventional or ADHD, dyslexic, or autistic leader, don’t wait; you don’t have time for that. Schedule a free coaching call with me. Let’s talk about what’s changing in your world, and what we can build that actually holds.
Video transcription:
So, I just got off the call with a client, and I intentionally taken the meeting actually where I knew I’d be able to finish up the rest of my day um doing the thing I’d been waiting to do, which was to head out to the beach, but what it was really struck me as I was sitting there having this conversation with them was how much they were struggling with the amount of change that’s happening right now and they are very unconventional. They usually instigate the change, so to see them even a little taken aback by it definitely told me that this is unfamiliar times, and we all need to remember, like the ocean that ebbs and flows that comes and goes we all need to be open to that change, to that diversity. I think about the sand and as the ocean comes in it changes the beach every day every minute the beach changes. It leaves things. It takes sand away. It creates eddies like it’s all different. Really good unconventional leadership is the same. It ebbs. It flows. It does a wide variety of things, and we have to be able to do that with it. Just like realizing I was talking to you with my sunglasses, I should probably change it to my regular glasses, right.
Be open to change, not just open, embrace it. Look at it when it comes, say ‘Thank you. Thank you for all the opportunities.’
I’m JoyGenea, Unconventional leadership coach and champion for those embracing change and growth right now, cause it is happening and it’s coming quick. If you’d love to learn more about coaching with me, please schedule a free coaching call. Let’s talk about upgrading your leadership. Let’s talk about changing your life and getting it where you’d like it to be. Bye now.