On November 5th, 2025, I attended the World Business Forum in New York City—a two-day event sponsored by WOBI and recognized by Forbes as one of the top five leadership summits to attend in 2025. This year’s program focused on helping leaders and executives manage technological transformation, navigate economic uncertainty and personal disruption, and lead diverse teams through rapidly shifting workforce norms and expectations.
Chris Stanley, Managing Director of WOBI USA and Global Content Director, told Forbes that “leaders must develop adaptability, resilience, and strategic foresight” and shared that “the ability to engage talent and build high-performing teams remains a key challenge for creating a sustainable competitive advantage.”
Featuring globally-recognized experts and figures such as Adam Grant, Brené Brown, James Patterson, Patrick Leddin, James Clear, Scott Galloway, Seth Godin, Renée Richardson Gosline, Ayanna Howard, and Simone Biles, the forum offered attendees new tools, research, and key strategies to help address pressing challenges that are facing executives, leaders and businesses today. Each speaker offered a fresh and unique lens on what it means to lead, adapt, and thrive in the face of massive change and disruption.
Dealing with disruption in life-affirming ways
During the event, I sat down with two of the deeply inspiring speakers – James Patterson, the world’s bestselling author and acclaimed storyteller with 425 million books sold, and Dr. Patrick Leddin, The Wall Street Journal bestselling author and renowned leadership expert. Patterson and Leddin are co-authors of the new book Disrupt Everything―and Win: Take Control of Your Future.
The book’s premise is simple: to help readers deal with the most powerful and misunderstood force in this fast-changing world—disruption—and turn it into a force for success. It lays the foundation for recognizing and leveraging “positive disrupter” strengths to help us move forward with courage, resilience, and innovation (and greater life satisfaction and fulfillment). In their research for the book, they interviewed 350 people from all walks of life and uncovered 16 key behaviors that a majority of positive disruptors demonstrate.
I asked both authors what stood out to them most throughout their research and writing of the book. Patterson reflected on how disruption shapes not just our work, but our very sense of ourselves, and our fulfillment and purpose. He shared: “Whenever I give a talk — whether to a corporate group, to college students, or to people at an event — I ask the audience members, ‘Are you living a good life or just hanging on?’ By far the most prevalent answer I hear is “I’m just hanging on.”
Patterson explained his view that living a good life is directly related to how we approach and manage disruption, which is inevitable in life and work:
“Disruption can be scary, but it also can be an agent for positive change. Virtually every company, and virtually every employee (and individual) needs to be open to disruption and play a part in positive change. Everybody has a part to play.”
The book offers research-based strategies and frameworks – and a specialized toolkit – to help readers become Positive Disrupters, fostering dynamic teams, transforming organizations, revitalizing industries, building meaningful relationships, and breathing life and love into family. FranklinCovey is launching a course in mid-November called Disrupt Everything: Innovate for Impact based on the book and designed to help leaders and teams deal with disruption in a positive way.
Dr. Leddin shared one of his key takeaways from researching the book was around the power of relationships, and how they can provide “headwinds and tailwinds” that have the profound ability to either ignite and nourish your inner fire or dampen and extinguish your zest and creativity. The connections we cultivate can lift us up, pushing us toward our dreams and visions, or they can pull us down, anchoring us in place.
Positive, supportive and growth-oriented relationships are essential
In the book, the authors include many practical exercises for growth, including “Tool 5: Analyze Your Relationships.” It invites readers to identify the key relationships in their lives and rate each one on a scale from –5 to +5 based on whether it serves as a headwind (holding them back) or a tailwind (propelling them forward). The exercise encourages reflection on how to minimize draining connections while nurturing the ones that truly energize and inspire. “Great relationships are mutually beneficial,” they write. “Strive to be a tailwind for others as well.”
What sets this book apart, in my view, is its keen focus on growth and positive disruption practices and strategies that drive personal, professional and relational development, honoring a whole-life perspective.
Establishing better habits to propel our growth
Another featured speaker at the World Business Forum was James Clear, the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Atomic Habits – a transformative book with over 25 million copies sold – that delves into behavioral psychology, addressing the question, “How can we live better?” with actionable, research-based strategies. Clear explored proven approaches for building better habits, breaking unhelpful ones, and creating systems for success—even (and especially) when motivation lags.
A key takeaway for me from Clear’s presentation was the idea that “True behavior change is identity change” and that “every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”
Clear discussed how the most sustainable habits are built when we engage in a process of shifting our identity – focusing on the type of person we want to become and be rather than having a goal of achieving “X”. From my work as a career and leadership coach and in my own life, I’ve seen that this mindset and approach – of gaining clarity on “who we want to be in this world” and grounding our behaviors in our core values and ultimate visions of the person we wish to be, helps us navigate disruption in more life-affirming and growth-inducing ways.
Turns critics into coaches
Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist and Wharton’s top-rated professor for seven straight years, as well as #1 New York Times bestselling author of six books that have sold millions of copies, presented on developing the competencies needed to respond to and find strength in adversity. One key takeaway for me was how we can turn our critics into coaches by asking for advice, not feedback.
Asking for feedback from someone can sometimes prompt them to criticize us and point out our flaws and missteps, from a perspective that is typically about past performance or behavior. Whereas asking for advice is more forward-thinking, often bringing the individual who is offering input into our corner, spurring them to provide insights that will help us grow and stretch in the future. This process allows the individual offering input to us to become more engaged as our partner, mentor and supporter in our continuing growth journey, rather than one who shares just a closed-ended critique.
Staying grounded and strong in the face of rapid change
In times of disruption and uncertainty, these principles can serve as a compass for staying grounded and growing stronger. Navigating change successfully requires clarity about who we wish to become, along with the courage, resilience, and trust that we can weather challenges in ways that lead to growth. When we pair that inner clarity with supportive relationships and a commitment to help others rise as we rise, we can build careers, businesses, and lives filled with purpose, meaning, and authentic success.
Kathy Caprino is a global career, leadership and performance coach, LinkedIn Top Voice, 2x author, speaker and host of the podcast Finding Brave, supporting professional breakthrough to new levels of success, impact and reward.