Disrupt Yourself … “What got you here, won’t take you further” … So how will you challenge yourself, change yourself, to create a better future for you, and your organisation?

May 15, 2025

Daniel Ek, founder of music streaming platform Spotify, was a great software engineer. But as the business grew, he was challenged by his investors to bring in more experienced and commercially minded business leaders. Ek resisted, and slowly realised that to be CEO, he needed to change himself. New skills, new behaviours, new mindset.

He set about reinventing himself. How could he most effectively lead a growing workforce, how will the business need to restructure as it innovates? What will he need to do commercially, to optimise his business model?

Over recent years the Swedish entrepreneur has morphed into a effective CEO – a bold deal-maker, an ecosystem strategist, and a vocal critic of Apple and platform monopolies. He’s also embraced AI, audio personalisation, and creator tools. His ability to pivot his leadership style and mindset — from coder to cultural architect — mirrors the shifts in Spotify’s own transformation to become a global leading business worth $150 billion.

Leading in a world of relentless change

In a world shaped by relentless technological advancement, shifting consumer expectations, and mounting global complexities, one truth stands clear: the only constant is change. For businesses, riding successive waves of innovation — the so-called “S-curves” — has become essential for survival. But organizations don’t transform themselves. People do. And at the core of any successful transformation lies a deeper, personal journey: the leader must disrupt themselves first.

“Disrupt yourself before the market does,” is no longer just a catchphrase. It is a strategic imperative for leaders who want to stay ahead, remain relevant, and build resilient organisations.

The S-Curves of business, and of leaders

The S-curve is a classic model of innovation and growth. It begins with a slow start (experimentation and learning), accelerates with rapid growth (scaling and adoption), and eventually flattens (maturity and decline) — unless a new S-curve is initiated. Most successful companies have ridden multiple S-curves: IBM from mainframes to AI, Netflix from DVDs to streaming to gaming, and Apple from computers to iPods to the iPhone and beyond.

But what’s less discussed is that leaders themselves follow similar S-curves. Leadership capabilities that were effective in one phase of a company’s journey may become obsolete in the next. A founder who excels at scrappy bootstrapping might struggle with building corporate systems. A CEO skilled in operational efficiency might falter in a time demanding radical reinvention. To stay effective, leaders must be willing to unlearn, relearn, and evolve — over and over again.

When Satya Nadella took over as CEO in 2014, Microsoft was seen as a lumbering giant, missing out on the mobile revolution. Nadella disrupted not just the company’s business model — pivoting from software licensing to cloud computing and SaaS — but also its culture. He embraced empathy, collaboration, and learning. Under his leadership, Microsoft became more open (even partnering with competitors), more agile, and significantly more valuable. Nadella had to shed the defensive, Windows-centric mindset and adopt a growth mindset — first for himself, then for his team, then for the company.

Originally a DVD rental company, Netflix’s founder Reed Hastings disrupted his own successful business model not once but twice — first with the pivot to streaming, then with the leap into content creation. Each transition required letting go of what had worked in the past and being willing to experiment with bold new ideas. Hastings consistently bet on future trends, even when it meant cannibalizing his own business. His leadership S-curve tracked the company’s: visionary, adaptive, and always one step ahead.

Disruption begins with you

Self-disruption is uncomfortable. It requires confronting deeply held beliefs, reexamining past success formulas, and letting go of control. But it’s also liberating. It opens the door to fresh thinking, new approaches, and personal growth.

Whitney Johnson, author of Disrupt Yourself, argues that intentional personal disruption is essential for sustained innovation. She likens it to jumping from one S-curve to another — before the first one flattens out. The personal S-curve, like the business one, begins with a learning phase, accelerates with competence, and plateaus with mastery. True leaders leap to the next curve before they stagnate.

This kind of reinvention is not about abandoning your identity — it’s about continuously reshaping it to meet new realities. It’s not just change for survival; it’s change for significance.

 

Akio Toyoda was CEO of Toyota from 2009 to 2023. He took the reins of a traditional, conservative automaker known for its lean manufacturing, but not for innovation. Recognizing the tectonic shifts in mobility — from electrification to autonomy to software-driven vehicles — Toyoda personally led a cultural shift.

He transformed himself from a manufacturing-focused executive into a tech-savvy mobility visionary. He promoted bold moves, including launching an in-house software division (Woven Planet), developing hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, and positioning Toyota as a “mobility company” rather than a carmaker. This transformation began with his own willingness to question legacy thinking — a rare trait in Japanese corporate culture.

Perhaps one of the most radical corporate reinventions in history, Zhang Ruimin took Haier from a struggling refrigerator factory in Qingdao to a global IoT and appliance powerhouse. But what stands out most is Zhang’s own personal disruption.

Originally a bureaucratic factory manager, Zhang evolved into a radical management innovator. He repeatedly reinvented Haier’s business model — most notably by introducing the Rendanheyi model, breaking down traditional hierarchies into micro-enterprises where employees act like entrepreneurs. To do this, he had to let go of command-and-control leadership and become a facilitator of self-organizing teams. His transformation helped Haier avoid stagnation and maintain continuous relevance.

How to disrupt yourself?

1. Embrace Humility and a Growth Mindset
Leaders must accept that what got them here won’t get them there. Success is often the enemy of reinvention because it fosters complacency. A growth mindset — the belief that abilities can be developed — is fundamental. This means being open to feedback, admitting what you don’t know, and seeing failure as a source of insight.

2. Learn Continuously and Curiously
Self-disruptive leaders are voracious learners. They read widely, seek out diverse perspectives, experiment with new technologies, and stay alert to weak signals on the horizon. They never stop asking: What am I missing? What’s changing? What must I understand next?

3. Let Go to Move Forward
The biggest barrier to transformation is often attachment — to a role, a way of working, or a sense of control. Leaders must shed old mental models and step into new paradigms. That may mean giving others more autonomy, retiring past assumptions, or redefining their purpose.

4. Surround Yourself with Challengers
Echo chambers are the enemy of change. Great leaders invite dissent, debate, and difference. They hire people who complement their weaknesses and are unafraid to challenge their thinking. These “truth-tellers” are essential to seeing what you cannot yet see.

5. Redefine Success
Self-disruption often requires rethinking what success looks like. It’s not always about power, control, or short-term wins. Sometimes it’s about long-term value, new impact, or even personal fulfillment. Leaders must reorient their compass as the terrain shifts.

Leadership reinvention

The future will not reward stability; it will reward adaptability. In a world of AI, automation, climate disruption, and geopolitical flux, the ability to reinvent is not a luxury — it’s a leadership necessity.

S-curves are not just for companies; they are for people. Leaders who ride their own curves of learning and renewal become more than just survivors. They become visionaries, builders, and catalysts of transformation.

It’s not enough to disrupt your market. First, you must disrupt yourself.

Leaders who successfully reinvent themselves tend to:

  • Challenge orthodoxy, including their own past beliefs

  • Move from expertise to curiosity, staying open to learning

  • Adapt their leadership style to match the company’s new phase

  • Embrace risk, even if it means betting against their earlier success

  • Anchor themselves in purpose, not just performance

In a world of accelerating change, the leaders who thrive will be those who see reinvention not as a crisis, but as a calling.

To lead in a world of exponential change, you must embrace personal reinvention as a continuous journey. Like great businesses, great leaders jump to new S-curves before the old ones plateau. They shed outdated beliefs, cultivate new capabilities, and lead with curiosity and courage.

The leaders of tomorrow will not be those who cling to the past, but those who are bold enough to reimagine themselves — again and again.

Disrupt yourself. Or be disrupted. The choice is yours.

 

 

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