Head-spinning change, stomach-wrenching anxiety, and heart-aching grief are all too common experiences in our work and personal lives right now. Economic volatility, technological disruption, organizational restructuring, and an unpredictable world stage are creating a backdrop of relentless uncertainty that leaders and the people they lead are navigating every day.
How might leaders of organizations or within communities support those who look to them for guidance? In this post, I explore what it looks like to lead with steadiness and care — and offer some practical ways to support your people when the path forward feels uncertain.
Leading People, Not Just Problems
In our most recent blog post about surviving layoffs, one of the most acute disruptions leaders face, Greg Brisendine emphasized the importance of compassion, commitment, and care for the impact on employees. The same holds true for teams navigating rapid technological change, economic uncertainty, or any number of forces reshaping how we work today. While it may feel comfortable to focus all our attention on the head work of strategic choices, meaningful metrics, and objective decisions, the reality is that we all work with people.
People inhabit bodies and experience feelings and emotions, so leaders cannot simply logic their way to success. We have to look at the whole human being as we offer support and direction to the people who work with us and for us.
What Nature Can Teach Us About Leading Through Hard Times
Nature offers us a useful lens for thinking about this. As we leave the stillness of the winter season and enter spring, we are eager for a reawakening to increasing warmth and light. Any significant disruption — in our organizations or in the world around us —creates its own cold harsh winds that cause people to hunker down and take shelter.
As people come through those chilling weeks or months, they are longing for clear direction and new energy, which you as a leader need to provide.
Your Power Is Real — and Limited
Remember, though, there are natural cycles within the organization just as there are in nature. Spring follows winter; acceptance and even renewal come after change and loss.
These processes often start quietly and invisibly, unfolding at their own pace, not able to be rushed or pushed. You don’t control them, but you can support them.
Conditions, Not Force
Watch a maple tree in early spring and you'll notice something quietly remarkable: Sap rises not by force, but by conditions. Warm days and cold nights create a natural push-pull that draws nourishment up from the roots to feed new buds — at exactly the right moment, at exactly the right pace.
In the wake of disruptions — whether economic, organizational, or otherwise — there will be a time of withdrawal and internal focus from the people in your organization. The conditions do not support them bringing their full energy to work. But those conditions are not permanent. Like the tree, the organization’s roots are holding; the nourishment is waiting for the right moment.
Tending the Roots: How to Show Up as a Leader
What can you do to support the fundamentals — institutional knowledge, individual engagement, company culture, and relationship networks? How do you keep those roots healthy and ready when the days lengthen and warm? How do you resist the urge to demand productivity and creativity before people are ready?
That discomfort serves a purpose: It creates the conditions for a new response and genuine reengagement. As leader, you can’t rush it. You also don’t want to shield people too much from the hard reality of the world they’re operating in.
So what does it look like in practice to cultivate those conditions and support your people through uncertainty? Here are some starting points:
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Find frequent opportunities to remind people of the organization’s purpose, vision and strategy — that which remains steady and constant.
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Spend time with individuals and small groups genuinely listening to how they are and what they need. Be honest, set clear priorities, and help them understand what’s stable and what’s still evolving.
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Take the medium- and long-term view without overreacting to short-term dips in productivity and drops in morale. Sometimes the only way through is through.
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Share your thinking as openly as you can, even when it’s hard. People need transparency, and they need to see how you navigate difficulty.
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Repeat messages more than you think necessary. People absorb information gradually, and what doesn't register in a moment of stress or confusion may be exactly what someone needs to hear two weeks later.
Your Role Is to Create the Conditions
As a leader, you have your own emotional journey through turbulent times. Part of your role is to navigate it consciously, so you can be a steady presence for the people who look to you for guidance.
Your job isn’t to force your team through the process or manufacture energy that isn’t there yet. It’s to create the conditions — honesty, clarity, and genuine care — under which your people can find their footing and move forward together.
