Leading in Uncertain Times
Uncertain times require strong steady leadership. How do you lead during these challenging times?
We all know that we are living in very uncertain times. Many say that these are “unprecedented times.” I’m not sure. Maybe.
As I reflect on several painful personal experiences, I hope these practical tips can give you the strength and direction to lead confidently in any uncertain time.
It’s definitely fair to say that we have never experienced anything like what is happening around our globe today. At the same time, there are several among us who have experienced variations of extreme uncertainty in our own lives. Maybe you have as well. What can we learn from these past experiences to help us best survive, and even thrive, during this current challenging time?
Personally, I can think of several times in my life when uncertainty and fear was so significant that I was unsure if I could make it. Yet, I had to find a way to pull myself together to lead in the face of this fear and uncertainty.
At barely 31 years of age myself, the surgeon told my wife and I that her breast cancer had returned, now for the second time. Over the following months, I watched helplessly as the chemo treatments continued to break down her body as it slowly drained the life from her previously glowing beautiful eyes. In the midst of this, I had to find a way to be strong for our 8 and 10 year old sons while leading our household and continuing to perform at the office. Learning about her fellow chemotherapy patients passing away while her treatments continued added a heightened sense of anxiety around the possibilities of the unknown future. Fast forward 15 years later and she is healthy and those realities are now distant memories.
Looking ahead six years later, we discovered that my sister-in-law had been shooting heroin in her apartment bathroom, while her 9 and 3 year old sons were only feet away in the next room. Taking a leadership role to ‘do what’s right’ isn’t easy when you have outside elements fighting you along the way.
Trying to manage legal battles in court while having very difficult conversations with young innocent children with lots of questions brought a new level of intense stress, fear and uncertainty to my life. Following an exhausting two years of sleepless nights and almost daily surprises, both my sister-in-law and brother-in-law overdosed and passed away. While it’s not always easy, I can honestly say that her 17 and 10 year old boys are thriving despite the several unimaginable challenges they have faced throughout their still very young lives.
In comparison to those personal situations, my previous work stresses seem almost ridiculous to even mention. However, back during those times, I can recall a few situations that seemed practically impossible to survive.
From the advertising business coming to almost complete standstill following the September 11th attacks of 2001 and the economic decline of 2008, it was difficult to imagine how we’d survive when huge portions of our clients completely stopped doing business with us. And with our competition facing the same issues, the cutbacks were magnified 10-fold as we scrambled to figure out new ways to compete and generate revenue to support our staff and their families.
In my first career, I worked for 6 different companies while my organization was constantly involved in mergers or acquisitions. As a leader, I constantly worked to figure out how to lead others through these times of uncertainty and fear. Stress would magnify when our initial gut reactions were confirmed and new unforeseen challenges continued to build on the others. As we regrouped and time passed, we always weathered the storm, eventually.
In every one of these past situations, there was stress, fear, anxiety, concern and uncertainty. In every situation, I watched individuals fold and collapse. I also watched others step up and display incredible courage and strength. I watched them help others cope and even grow during these times.
Sometimes, I led well. Sometimes, I did not.
Reflecting back, I’ve created a list of suggestions that I believe will help us all lead better during these difficult times. As you read these tips, consider all your leadership roles (work, home, neighborhood, community). The first and most important step is leading yourself successfully. If you don’t lead yourself well, you are unable to lead others.
Leading yourself during uncertain times
1. Double down on your self-care. Get enough sleep. Eat healthy foods. Find a way to be physically active. Manage your spiritual and emotional state. For me, I prioritize meditation and prayer each morning.
2. Maintain appropriate perspective. It can always be worse. Consider a potentially worse situation. When done correctly, it’s very painful in the moment. But it also provides the ability to better cope with today’s issues. Practice gratitude. Write down and discuss things you are grateful for with others.
3. Practice Trust. Have faith in things beyond yourself. For many of us, this begins with our spiritual beliefs. Independent of that, we all must find ways to trust and rely on other people, systems and organizations. We can’t control everything. We must rely on the collective population to get through these uncertain times.
4. Be informed (but give yourself boundaries). Learn about the real issues you and others are facing. Understand the impact and the options to deal with the current reality. But put a limit on the amount of time and energy you give to this. At some point, we must ask ourselves, “Is this still helpful?”
5. Laugh every day. Find humor around you. Watch funny movies or silly sitcoms. Find and recall old jokes that bring a smile to your face. Laughter is one of the best ways to relieve stress on the body.
6. Connect with others. I’ve heard a few people say we should rename ‘Social Distancing’ to ‘Physical Distancing’ so we can remember the importance of not losing the connection to others. I like that. Make more phone calls than usually. Put balance into those conversations to address concerns but also to celebrate positive things.
7. Revisit resources that energize you. Reread a favorite book. Listen to or watch videos that inspired you before. Contact your therapist, counselor, mentor, coach or friend who has been helpful to your mental state in tough times of the past. If you don’t have these kinds of resources now, ask others for suggestions.
8. Turn lemons into lemonade. Every challenging situation provides an opportunity for growth and learning. Step back and reconsider your current situation and challenges from other angles.
Leading others during uncertain times
1. Confirm that you are ‘leading yourself’ first. Just like on an airplane, you can’t help others until you put on your own oxygen mask first.
2. Revisit the “Leading Yourself” list in the context of others, not self. For example, how can you help others tend to their own self care? Or how can you help them maintain perspective?
3. Display calm confidence. As a leader, during times of uncertainty, this may be the most important element to minimize fear and anxiety with those you are leading. Consider implementing some personal mindfulness and breathing practices to help you find this calm.
4. Be real & honest with others. The people you lead want to be assured that you have a grasp of reality and that your calm confidence isn’t simply naive ignorance.
5. Be available and actively listen to others. During uncertain times, most people are carrying around an incredible amount of stress that is building up inside them just waiting to explode. Provide those around you the opportunity to release some of that pressure by being available, asking them to share their thoughts and giving them space to let it out.
These short lists are by no means complete but they provide you a starting point. I challenge you to invest the time to embrace these ideas while you continue to create your own list of helpful additions.
Experiment with a few of these practical action items below to help increase your odds of thriving as you lead yourself and others during these uncertain times.
Practical suggestions to explore
1. Create a non-negotiable list for yourself during these uncertain times. Some things on my list ‘to do’ include prioritizing daily meditation and stretching. Some things to manage and limit on my list include ‘no more than 1 hour total of news exposure daily’.
2. Keep a daily gratitude journal. You’ve no doubt heard this advice a thousand times. Don’t underestimate the power of this. It works!
3. Become a virtual meeting and remote worker expert. If you are conducting more business via virtual meetings (and working out of your home), invest 30 minutes reading what the experts have to say about this topic. Virtual meetings need to be approached differently than in-person meetings. Brush up on the tips. Experiment with some of the suggestions. Here are links to a few great blogs that may be helpful to you and your team:
