During leadership workshops, managers often ask questions like: How can I lead my team when I don’t even know where we’re going? How can I motivate them when I’m not sure what we’re working towards? How can I stay motivated myself in a situation like this?
“This situation” has become a catch-all term for everything we have experienced over the past few years: the pandemic, earthquakes, wars, rising energy prices, supply chain disruptions, acquisitions, layoffs and more. The list goes on. From a psychologist’s perspective, the common denominator is uncertainty. And uncertainty triggers fear, anger, anxiety and helplessness, perhaps the hardest emotion of all to endure.
If your key people struggle with uncertainty, your organisation will too
People respond to uncertainty in very different ways. How an organisation reacts in challenging times is ultimately the combined result of how each member of the leadership team responds. In other words, if your key people lack the skills to deal with uncertainty, the organisation will struggle as well.
Things will not always be clear or straightforward
The good news is that the ability to cope with uncertainty and lead through crisis can be developed. Modern leadership approaches increasingly emphasise the importance of psychological factors in leading teams and organisations, particularly during times of disruption.Once leaders reach a certain level of experience, the biggest challenge is rarely a lack of knowledge, information or tools. More often, the real obstacle is excessive confidence in past experience, psychological rigidity, a strong need for control and, perhaps most importantly, failing to truly listen to the team and understand what people need.
Managers who underestimate the importance of relationships, or who do not know how to build them, risk losing their team’s trust or seeing their people break under pressure. That is why becoming aware of your own behavioural patterns is essential.
Unfortunately, uncertainty is never going away completely. Things will not always be simple or predictable, if they ever truly were. Only the intensity of the crisis changes over time.
A good leader is not the one who knows everything
Crises have always existed. Experienced leaders have successfully navigated many of them and often describe their greatest strength as the ability to remain calm and help their organisations emerge stronger.
What enables them to do this is accepting that they cannot control everything. Paradoxically, by acknowledging what they cannot control, they often gain greater influence over what they can.
A good leader is not someone who has all the answers. A good leader is someone who does not panic when the answers are unclear. In times of crisis, emotional regulation is often more important than technical expertise. Success does not necessarily belong to the strongest, but to those who remain the calmest under pressure.
What should leaders do during a crisis?
Start by managing your own anxiety and channel that energy into building trust and strengthening relationships within your team. Take short breaks whenever possible to regain perspective and regulate your reactions. Sometimes doing nothing for a moment is better than rushing into action simply for the sake of acting.
Take control of your thoughts. Doing so helps regulate your emotions and reduces your stress response. By managing your own stress, you directly influence the stress levels of your team. In our leadership programmes, we help managers stay composed, maintain focus and navigate uncertainty with greater confidence and resilience.
You do not have to know everything. You cannot have all the answers. What you can do is maintain your integrity and preserve a strong sense of connection within your team. People often follow leaders because of who they are, not only because of what they know. During difficult times, your team looks to you for reassurance. What they need is your presence. They need honesty, even if the answer is, “I don’t know yet.” They need someone they can trust. If you cannot offer certainty, acknowledge that openly. Your role is to explain what is happening, admit what remains unknown, help people understand the situation and reduce unnecessary fear.
A simple but highly effective communication framework is:
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Here is what we know.
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Here is what we do not know.
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Here is what we are doing now.
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Here is when we will review the situation again.
This creates a shared understanding and reinforces the message: we are in this together. During times of uncertainty, human connection is often the most reliable source of stability.
Throughout history, communities have relied on social stress responses based on care and connection, known as the tend-and-befriend response. We explore this concept in greater depth during our leadership workshops.
If you cannot help, do not make things harder
Expect people to feel anxious during uncertain times, and remember that anxiety manifests differently from person to person. Help your team understand what they are experiencing and how both automatic and intentional reactions can affect those around them.
This is even more important for leaders. Everything you say, everything you leave unsaid, and the way you communicate will significantly influence your team’s ability to cope with the challenges ahead.
At the SELECTIO Leadership Academy, we encourage managers to ask their team members one simple question: “How does my stress affect you?”. Many leaders are surprised by the answers.
If you would rather not be surprised, join one of our leadership development programmes and build the skills needed to lead confidently through uncertainty.
