Recent workforce disruptions including work relocation, machine learning, and widespread layoffs, have increased the challenges that business leaders face. These disruptions to the workforce have highlighted the importance and challenges of leadership. To understand how the dramatic workforce changes are affecting the roles and requirements of business leaders, we collected data from senior business leaders about how they navigated and, in many cases, transformed their organizations through crisis. We also interviewed senior business leaders about what is needed to guide the modern organization. Based on these learnings, we formulated explanations for how senior business leaders can be successful, particularly during times of upheaval. The combination of learnings allows us to consider how senior business leaders can learn from crises to positively affect organizational performance for the long-term and what organizations can learn about senior business leaders during challenging times.