The 3 steps smart CEOs are taking in a volatile tariff environment, according to the head of a major global leadership advisory firm

Business leaders around the world find it difficult to catch their breath. Managers have faced a volatile stock market, extreme tariff uncertainty and a litany of other problems that have emerged in recent months.
Constantine Alexandrakis, CEO of Russell Reynolds Associates, advises advice and CEOs of companies for decades. He says that economic and geopolitical uncertainty is a summit for leaders, according to the company Last report On C-Suite priorities in 2025. “There have been no widespread political changes in this country like this for a long time,” he said.

Alexandrakis spoke with Fortune Regarding the CEOs fear most at the moment, how the trembling markets make the leaders look at AI and why the senior executives make as many trips to Washington.

This interview was published and condensed for more clarity.

Fortune: What keeps CEOs at night?

Constantine Alexandrakis: CEOs are worried. They spend a lot of time in Washington, as you know, to try to plead their case. And it's not just uncertainty. It is actually uncertainty about uncertainty. CEOs are starting to see a real impact on their businesses. They start, behind closed doors, to be more open to their concerns about some of the pricing policies. There have been no widespread political changes in this country like this for a long time. [Corporate leaders are] Try to quickly get the expertise of government relations they do not have.

They also think – if they do business in Asia – How do they rotate some of the restrictions that occur? There is an awareness that reality is here, that it will have an impact in different ways, and [CEOs are] Try tactically to understand how to adjust.

But there is an opinion that it may be a moment that can really start starting with what we have all played, in terms of AI, to find new efficiency.
What would new efficiency with AI look like?

If income becomes unpredictable, this means that the side of finance expenditure must be managed more carefully. Are there any ways to use artificial intelligence to skip start-up productivity gains that can help a period of crisis?

There is an emerging consensus that you can obtain, through business functions, up to 25 or 30% of productivity gains by implementing agents and the advantages that they can generate. In all situations where the economy undergoes pressure, there is a window of innovation and change that improves. So, as in the pandemic, where the use of remote work technologies and other communications has been accelerated, CEOs say: “Is it an opportunity to accelerate the adoption of AI to help us on the spending line?”

Do we see an era of “CEO as a diplomat?”

Almost every CEO I spoke to a trip [Washington D.C.]And our research team on government relations is more busy than it has ever been. [Leaders] Also sail on the other side of [political issues] Whether in Canada or China or two.

Are the research teams on government relations in overdrive at the moment?

They are definitely. Someone asked me, “I mean, is that normal?” Doesn't that happen after each new president is elected? ” And I would say: “I mean, to a certain extent, but not notable. And it's noticeable. It's notable. “

What makes a good specialist in government relations and where do you find?

The high -level things I would say are: people who understand how to go to the good Washington leaders, how to enter the White House, have relationships with current people in administration and can develop a strategy on how to connect the company's problems with the question of a day and push the interests of the company in this regard.

What is difficult for the talent of C-Suite level with which you are working at the moment?

The biggest challenge if you are a senior manager is: is this moment of uncertainty a time when you make a change? Whether you are a CEO in a new company or a senior official, it is a little more difficult at the moment to project where the economy is going, what are the resources to which you would have access to a new job, how far investments slow down and how long the shocks of the supply chain will last.

[Uncertainty] hurts the will of people to be mobile. It keeps hiring on their traces, but it creates more questions when someone is recruited for something.

What are the best leaders doing right now to navigate this period of uncertainty?

Generally, it's three things: we get out of grain, which consists in focusing on the execution of the strategy. The number two gives off confidence [while also] Be humble on the challenges we have in the environment. The third goes outward.

The best leaders during these times run [focus] Except yourself and stay very close to their customers, go out and spend more time with them than they would. It is intended to counter the negative impact of being too concentrated internally at a time when the world changes and you do not want to miss the movements of your customers.

Do you think that corporate culture will be released from this fundamentally different period?

I think it is an opportunity for companies to get stronger in their culture, according to the way in which they sail together in uncertainty. Companies that are certain and non -volatile, and provide a safe refuge to their employees, compared to the uncertainty and volatility they see in the outside world, will emerge stronger. And their cultures will emerge stronger.

This story was initially presented on Fortune.com