Leading Through Uncertainty

For all the benefits workplace trend shifts to flexible and hybrid working has brought, it can make some aspects of showing strong leadership through these uncertain economic times less straightforward. 

Now more than ever it’s vital to show present, transparent leadership. 

Transparency with the team 

During turbulent market times, especially, you don’t want to leave staff with extra work-related anxiety. With current working setups it can be too easy to let team members go on their own without involving them fully in wider plans. 

I like being transparent in business to the common life advise nugget about not going to bed without resolving an issue with your spouse. True transparency isn’t about sending a blanket email about what the company is going through – it’s about spending individual time with people on catchups and discussions. Say, for example, you have to implement a hiring freeze – it’s about getting ahead of that with staff and making sure they know what the plan looks like. 

Transparency is about preparing people, but it doesn’t always mean having to lay out the worst-case scenario. It’s about covering all aspects of what the change is going to look like and reiterating that there is a plan. 

By being transparent you can lower uncertainty levels, and this can lead to better staff retention. If people feel uncertain in a role, they can make rash decisions and leave their jobs, with high turnover just leading to even more uncertainty in an organization. 

With better transparency, you can also turn a potentially uncertain time for employees into a chance for them to show their value. If you’re transparent about the possibility of job losses, for example, you’re giving people the chance to better show their value in a company during a turbulent time. 

Value the opinions of others 

Listening to your people is so important, and not just in this economic downturn. Although I have many years of experience with PageGroup, I’ve not worked at a huge number of different companies, so I value the experience, ideas and thought processes other team members with wider experience have, which helps us be more productive and makes for a better work culture generally. 

If you notice that someone in your team needs help, you can often look for inspiration within that team for a resolution. You might be in a position to pick the brains of someone who is showing confidence in their abilities, ask them how they channel that confidence and not have work anxiety, and use that to help other individuals. It’s about making everyone know they’re not going it alone. 

That mentality can extend beyond your work team. If it’s appropriate, listen to work contacts outside your organization, and maybe even friends and family, for advice on overcoming non-business sensitive issues. Not going it alone can often mean finding inspiration and guidance anywhere. 

Embrace disruption and look at track records 

A simple but powerful way to negate uncertainty during tough business times is to point to your track record dealing with previous challenges. 

Working at PageGroup, I’m fortunate in that I’m able to bring up track records showing how we’ve managed previous downturns. In situations like that you can say: ‘This is the worst-case scenario, but if that happens, here’s what we did during a tough time previously, and it worked’. 

You can also use previous negative experiences to show that you’re more prepared now: ‘This is what we did last time, it was a mistake, we’re being honest and transparent’. 

For example, I’ve seen companies lose senior staff during a downturn, leaving them unprepared for their longer-term resurgence a few years later. During the next downturn they retained senior staff and were far better prepared for that next resurgence: lessons were learned from the errors and a lot of uncertainty was quelled. 

Building trust and not jumping to conclusions 

Every industry can be silo-ed in its own world of what an economic downturn looks like, and it’s normal for people to jump to conclusions and sometimes make rash decisions during times of market uncertainty. I say to people: “Hey, it’s OK to want to do that, but let’s not get worked up until we’ve all spoken about it together.” 

It just comes back to communication and transparency, to help avoid any panic creating a negative work culture. Let your people know that they can speak to you about what you’re going to do together to work through the issues. 

That links to trust – and creating a trusting work environment can sometimes be about something as simple as being present. I’ve seen companies where senior management seem inaccessible, like they’re trying to dodge difficult conversations and always seem tucked away in meetings. The last thing people need is leadership spreading anxiety. 

When that happens, people start thinking that they can’t stay with a company whose leadership they don’t trust, and they think about moving on. 

By simply being open and present as a leader, you can make people know that they are being heard, leading to better productivity and retention. All those positive things related to trust and showing true leadership through uncertainty.