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What the Greatest Leaders do Differently During Uncertainty
Written by Kinavic Senior Client Partner, Jill Ratliff
I’m a performance coach to some of the top leaders in consulting and professional services, and from my recent conversations, one thing is clear: leaders are facing increasing pressure to perform and lead through adversity in highly stressful environments.
The future is uncertain. Budgets are tight. Growth is increasingly hard to come by.
In times like this, I think back to a David Spiegelhalter quote: “Uncertainty is not something to be feared; it is the engine of progress.”
That quote reframes uncertainty not as something to fix, but something to engage with. If you lead long enough, you’ll realize there’s no avoiding uncertainty. The question all leaders should be asking is: “How do I navigate uncertainty without sacrificing trust, alignment, or performance?”
Decades of experience in Fortune 500 executive leadership roles and years of coaching some of the world’s top leaders have shown me how uncertainty can trigger deeply ingrained instincts: we delay decisions, double down on control, and misfire on our communication.
While understandable, those reactionary behaviors often create more harm than good. Even the most capable leaders can fall into these patterns, eroding the very trust and stability their teams need most.
At Kinavic, we help leaders at professional services firms accelerate performance in moments like this. Accelerating performance during uncertainty requires leaders to do a few things differently to set themselves, their teams, and their firms up to thrive:
1. Build Self-Awareness Around Uncertainty
We use a tool with every single one of our clients called “Notice. Choose. Practice.”
Notice: The first step to thriving during uncertainty is to consciously notice when you are in it. Which isn’t as obvious as it sounds!
Choose: Then you have the opportunity to choose a different mindset that will generate a new set of potential behaviors that will produce far better results.
Practice: Lastly, you can practice responding differently than you otherwise would have in these situations. This will build resilience and model leadership under pressure for your teams.
The biggest signal that you are in a time of uncertainty is stress. When the future becomes more unknown and pressure increases, stress levels rise. When leaders get stressed, their behaviors change. It makes sense; we’re all human!
The opportunity here is that we can look at behavior as a clue, not a conclusion. If two Partners can’t even be in a room together, the behavior isn’t the problem, it’s just a signal. Something about the environment is exceeding their capacity to respond productively. That’s the moment to get curious, not critical.
Building self-awareness around uncertainty allows us to choose different behaviors and practice different tools.
2. Choose a More Constructive Perspective
Uncertainty will always stir discomfort. It’s a natural human response. Leaders who can pause and reframe the situation gain clarity faster. Instead of asking, “How do I control this?” they ask, “What’s possible here?” This is the difference between reacting and responding.
When applied to their own behavior or the behavior of their teams, leaders who lean into a mindset of possibility facilitate different thinking and creative solutions.
The tone is set from the top. You, as a leader, must be intentional with the way you respond to stress/adversity because your people are watching you like a hawk. Great leaders use uncertainty as an opportunity to lean into curiosity and possibility because it takes a total group effort to navigate these situations successfully.
3. Increase Communication, Don’t Decrease It
One of the most common leadership missteps during uncertainty is the breakdown of communication. Leaders get consumed with high-stakes decisions and forget that silence is communicating something too. Often, it communicates the wrong thing.
Two things happen when communication changes (or ceases):
- People start to make things up.
- Trust starts to erode.
I remember working with a company that was in the process of going public. The executive team became so focused on getting the deal done that their communication cadence dropped off the face of a cliff. Fewer town halls, no informal updates, reduced 1:1s, and little visibility. Employees not only noticed, but they started to lose trust.
Despite the fact that no one had been lied to, people felt shut out. As a result, just 3-5 months later, the scores regarding the statement “I trust leadership” dropped precipitously on their next employee engagement survey.
This is where I refer to Peter Drucker’s warning: “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” Even if there’s no new information that can be shared, consistent touchpoints and visibility serve as signals that leadership is present and paying attention.
4. Set Clear Expectations Around Collaboration and Decision-Making
In uncertain environments, resources get tight, and leaders start fighting for their functional agendas and what they feel is their slice of the pie. This isn’t just a personality issue; it stems from a lack of agreed-upon expectations for how hard decisions will be made and how the organization will allocate resources (budget) under this new pressure.
Ideally, top management should have intentional conversations about how resources will be allocated and changes will be communicated during times of uncertainty as soon as they know changes are coming.
I realize that’s not always reality. So, I’ll often say the best time to course correct (especially communications) can be before, during, or after. There’s no wrong time.
It’s about having a conversation about what’s expected of your leaders. When revenues and resources become uncertain, how might leaders need to sacrifice some of their personal agenda or resources for the benefit of the broader organization’s priorities?
Google is an organization I’ve seen do this extremely well. They set expectations with their leaders that when they become part of an executive committee, they may be asked to subjugate their personal agenda in the short term, even if it impacts their compensation or their people, for the greater good of the company hitting a critical goal.
When expectations around what happens during uncertainty are clear up front, leaders are more willing to collaborate, even when decisions are difficult.
5. Regulate Emotions—Theirs and Others’
Stress is contagious. So is calm. Leaders who can manage their own emotional state—and support others in doing the same—create the conditions for sustained performance.
When someone on your team is triggered, trying to “solve” the problem on the spot rarely works. Instead, we coach leaders to pause, listen, and give people space to reset. It’s ok to recognize that tensions may be running high! Acknowledge it and act accordingly.
I once advised a leader to briefly leave a heated meeting and return with a glass of water. That tiny pause and reset shifted the tone of the conversation. Emotional regulation isn’t about perfection; it’s about practicing small, intentional behaviors that make big moments manageable.
This is one of the areas where the value of performance coaching really shines. Having an experienced third-party, like Kinavic’s team of Executive Advisors, as a resource and sounding board to talk through these situations is invaluable.
Final Thoughts
Uncertainty isn’t going away. The fear that comes with it doesn’t have to control you or your organization. The most effective leaders are those who show up anyway with presence, purpose, and tools that help keep people moving.
At Kinavic, we help leaders in professional services leverage their strengths and address barriers to performance, especially when the path forward is unclear.
If making sure your most important leaders are prepared to perform through uncertainty is a priority, we welcome the conversation to discuss how we can support your organization to reach your growth goals.
Jill Ratliff
Jill is a Senior Client Partner at Kinavic Leadership Acceleration, where she brings over 25 years of Fortune 500 Human Resources management experience to help leaders navigate constant change and reach their full potential.
