Episode 22: Leading Through Chaos: 4 Ways to Create Calm in Unpredictable Times
Welcome, welcome to the People-Forward Leadership™ Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me here today.
I want to start with something I've been noticing everywhere, in the news, in my coaching sessions, in consultations, and conversations with CEOs and even with my fellow business owners. I’m sure you’ve noticed it too. That there’s this underlying current of anxiety running through workplaces right now. Everyone’s feeling it. Economic volatility, government uncertainty, shifting priorities…it kind of feels like the ground keeps moving underneath our feet.
And in my work with organizations, I’ve watched leaders try to ignore the impact all of this is having on their employees, the stress and fear that comes in their questions about the security of their positions, and overall dip in engagement. Instead of responding to it, mainly because they don’t have any definitive answers to give, they try to push through with sheer determination by working harder, moving faster, and thinking that if they just power through, they'll get to the other side. But that approach may be actually making things worse. It's unintentionally increasing burnout, eroding trust, and ironically, hurting the very performance they're trying to protect.
So today, we're going to talk about. We’re going to talk about how to create calm when your workplace feels unpredictable and chaotic. And I'm going to give you four research-backed strategies that you can start using this week to steady your team and reduce anxiety, even when the path forward seems completely unclear.
What I love about these strategies is how they align with the three pillars of People-Forward Leadership™, they’re grounded in leader awareness, they’ll strengthen your team ecosystem, and they’ll help solidify your organizational culture by embracing continuous learning as a way of operating. You'll see how all three pillars work together to create stability in unstable times.
The truth is you can't control the chaos, but you can absolutely control how your team responds to it.
Research from Deloitte's 2025 Global Human Capital Trends report reveals that there's a widening gap between human needs and business outcomes, with workplace tensions at an all-time high. We're not imagining this stress; it's documented, it's real, and it's impacting every workplace in some way.
Whether you're leading a startup, managing a team in a large organization, or running your own business, this affects you. The question isn't whether uncertainty exists, because the answer is, it does. The question is: How do we lead through it effectively?
So grab a pen if you can, or if you're listening while on the move, give yourself permission to revisit these strategies later.
The first strategy is over-communicate (even when you don't have all the answers)
Here's what happens in uncertainty. When people don't hear from leadership, they assume the worst. Silence doesn't create calm; it creates anxiety. Our brains are wired to fill in the gaps, and when there's an information vacuum, we don't fill it with optimistic scenarios, we fill it with worst-case thinking.
There's fascinating research from Harvard Business Review that found during times of organizational change, employees who received frequent communication, even when the news was uncertain, reported 30% higher trust in leadership compared to those left in the dark.
This is a key point to remember: Even uncertain communication is better than silence.
Now, here's where leader awareness, the first pillar of the framework, comes in. This strategy requires something from you as the leader, and that’s the humility to acknowledge what you don't know and the clarity to communicate what you do know. It's resisting the urge to either hide until you have perfect information or to overpromise certainty that doesn't exist.
So here's what this looks like in practice. Your job as a leader isn't to have all the answers. I know that might feel uncomfortable when we're trained to think we should know everything before we communicate. But in times of real uncertainty, that's impossible and actually counterproductive.
Instead, use this simple formula. Share three things:
What we know
What we're tracking
What you can do right now.
That's it. Brief, regular updates using this three-part framework. Even if the update is, "We don't know yet, but here's what we're watching, and here's what hasn't changed."
Give it a try this week. Schedule a brief team update, even if you don't have major news to share. Use that three-part formula. Keep it short, keep it clear, and be sure to repeat the message across different channels. Say it in your team meeting, put it in an email, mention it in your one-on-ones. People need to hear messages multiple times, especially when they're anxious.
And don’t fall into the trap of sending long, confusing emails that create more anxiety than they resolve. When we’re nervous when tend to talk a lot and that’s can also translate into your writing. I see this all the time, leaders trying to cover every possible scenario, every caveat, every "what if." That actually increases anxiety. So keep it crisp, keep it clear, and communicate frequently rather than waiting to have the "perfect" comprehensive message.
When you communicate this way, you're not just sharing information but you're building trust, which is the foundation for an adaptive culture and empowered ecosystem. Trust and resiliency doesn't come from having all the answers; it comes from being honest about what you know and what you don't.
The second strategy might feel counterintuitive, but stay with me here. The second strategy is stop waiting for things to get back to normal. This one's all about embracing that third pillar of creating an adaptive culture of continuous learning as a fundamental operating principle, not just a nice-to-have.
Another mistake I see leaders make is framing uncertainty as temporary. Saying things like, ”Once things settle down..." Or "When we get back to normal..." Or "After this passes..."
The truth is treating chaos as a brief storm to weather keeps everyone in panic mode. It keeps your team in survival and scarcity thinking rather than adaptive problem-solving.
Researchers now have a term for what we're experiencing and they call it "permacrisis." A prolonged period of instability and insecurity. And organizational psychologists have found that waiting for stability before making changes actually increases stress and decreases performance.
Think about it, if you're constantly telling yourself and your team, "Just hold on a little longer," what message does that send? It says: Don't adapt, don't innovate, don't change anything, just white-knuckle it until things go back to how they were.
But what if they don't go back? What if this level of uncertainty is actually the new operating environment?
Instead of saying “hold on”, you should name it out loud. Say to your team, "Uncertainty is sticking around, so we're adapting how we work." That simple reframe shifts people from survival mode into problem-solving mode.
COVID is a great example of this. Those that treated the pandemic as their new normal, adapted, made a pivot and not only survived, but thrived during that season. But those who tried to white-knuckle through it are either still trying to recover or lost the fight all together.
This is continuous learning in action, recognizing that adaptation isn't a one-time event, it's an ongoing practice. Instead of thinking outside the box, which implies the box is still valid place to start, start creating a new, better box. One designed for the realities you're actually facing, not the ones you wish existed. Think of what does 2.0 look like?
So here’s your practical action step for this week. Look at one process or system in your team or organization that was designed for more stable times. Maybe it's your project planning cycles, maybe it's your approval processes, maybe it's how you make decisions. Ask yourself and your team: If we were designing this from scratch for the environment we're actually in, what would we do differently?
Then make one concrete change. Maybe it’s shorter project cycles. Faster feedback loops. Streamlined approvals. Something tangible that people can point to and say, "We're adapting."
Notice what this does. It invites your team into the problem-solving process. That's building an empowered ecosystem where people aren't just being told what to do; they're actively shaping how work gets done. And when people have a hand in designing the solutions, they're far more invested in making them work. And their focus shifts.
So try to resist empty pep talks like "We've got this!" or "We're resilient!" without pairing it with any actual change. That rings hollow. Every "we've got this" message needs to be paired with one real, visible change people can experience. Otherwise, you're just adding noise.
Inviting your team into the problem-solving process or creating adaptive solutions leads right into the third strategy, which is about redirecting energy. You want to focus on what you can actually control. This strategy beautifully demonstrates how leader awareness and empowered ecosystems work together.
According to the American Psychological Association, people experiencing chronic workplace stress spend up to 40% of their mental energy ruminating on factors outside their control. Think about that, 40% of mental energy spent on things they literally cannot change.
That's exhausting. And it's one of the main drivers of that feeling of helplessness and victimization that can take over teams during uncertain times.
Anxiety makes us obsess over what we can't change. But redirecting your attention to areas within your team's influence rebuilds momentum and restores a sense of agency. And agency, that feeling of "I can do something about this”, is critical for maintaining performance under pressure.
Now, as a leader, this starts with your own awareness. You have to manage your own tendency to fixate on the uncontrollable before you can help your team do the same. That's that self-management piece of leader awareness we talked about earlier. Notice when you're spinning on things you can't change, and practice redirecting yourself first.
Here's a coaching exercise I often do with my clients. Make two lists. Column one: What's outside our control. Column two: What's in our control.
What's always interesting is that the second list is usually much longer than people initially think. Customer service quality? In your control. Response times? In your control. Internal communication? In your control. How teams collaborate? In your control. The quality of your work? Completely in your control.
These are the levers you can actually pull to create better outcomes, even when external circumstances remain volatile.
So for this strategy, your practical action step is to do this exercise with your team this week. Create those two lists together. Then, and this is crucial, go all-in on the second list. Review it every week in your team meetings. What from our "controllables" list did we focus on this week? What progress did we make? And when you find people feeling stressed, panicked, or feeling overwhelmed, asked if they’re brain is causing them focus on the wrong list. It’s imperative to pay attention to your thoughts and redirect them to as soon as you can.
Definitely do this exercise yourself on a daily basis, but when you do this exercise collaboratively, you're building psychological safety. You're saying, "It's okay to acknowledge what we can't control. Let's name it, let's accept it, and then let's focus our energy where it can actually make a difference." That creates shared norms around how your team navigates uncertainty together.
This practice keeps teams grounded in what matters and prevents the paralysis that comes from fixating on the uncontrollable.
Now, unless you really plan to do something with those lists, don’t do it. Lists that just sit there looking decorative don’t work. If you can, assign specific names to each controllable. Set deadlines. Track progress. Make it real so people feel actual momentum week over week.
The fourth strategy brings all three pillars together because it requires leader awareness to let go of long-term certainty, it strengthens your ecosystem through shared accomplishments, and it embodies continuous learning through short feedback cycles.
The 4th strategy is go for quick wins, not long-term plans.
Studies show that progress, even small progress, is the single most powerful driver of positive emotions and engagement at work. It's more powerful than recognition, more powerful than compensation, more powerful than almost anything else. Progress fuels us.
Big goals feel impossible when everything keeps shifting. When you can't see six months ahead with any clarity, setting six-month goals can feel pointless or even demoralizing.
So instead, consider working in sprints. Consider short cycles, fast feedback, and iteration.
Break your work into two-week chunks. Pick one concrete, measurable goal per sprint and celebrate when it's done, publicly and enthusiastically, even if priorities shift for the next sprint. And be sure to use a simple tracker that everyone can see, one that identifies the Goal → Owner → Deadline → Done.
This creates visible progress and helps combat that exhausting feeling that nothing ever actually gets completed. We all know that feeling of working hard, being busy, but feeling like you're running in place.
Quick wins change that narrative. They provide proof that forward movement is possible, even in chaotic conditions.
And here's the science behind why this works. Each completion triggers a dopamine response in your brain that increases motivation and helps teams believe that progress is real and that their efforts matter.
Celebrating small wins also isn't a frivolous activity, it’s strategic brain chemistry. And it builds cohesion in your team ecosystem because you're creating shared experiences of success, even small ones, that remind people they're capable and effective.
Your practical action step for this week is to identify one two-week sprint goal for your team. Make it concrete and measurable. Not "improve communication” because that's too vague. Try something like "respond to all client emails within four hours" or "complete the first draft of the new onboarding guide" or "implement the new project tracking system."
Think one goal. Two weeks. Track it visibly. Then celebrate the completion.
What you're building here is a rhythm of learning and adapting…trying something, completing it, seeing what worked, and then adjusting for the next sprint. That's continuous learning in its most practical form.
And don’t make the mistake of creating more meetings in the name of agility. I see this mistake constantly. Teams get excited about sprints and then add daily stand-ups, weekly reviews, sprint planning sessions, and retrospectives, and then suddenly there's no time to actually do the work.
Keep check-ins light. Ten-minute stand-ups, not hour-long planning sessions. Protect your team's time to actually execute rather than just talking endlessly about executing.
So let's recap these four strategies and how they connect to People-Forward Leadership™:
Over-communicate even without all the answers—that's Leader Awareness in action, bringing humility and clarity to how you show up.
Stop waiting for normal to return—that's embracing an Adaptive Culture of Continuous Learning as your operating system, not waiting for the old way to come back.
Focus on what you can control—that's Leader Awareness guiding your attention, while building the foundation of trust in your Empowered Ecosystem.
And rack up quick wins—that's all three pillars working together: your awareness to let go of false certainty, your ecosystem celebrating together, and continuous adaptive learning through short cycles and fast feedback.
Now, before you get overwhelmed thinking you need to implement all four strategies perfectly starting tomorrow, let me be clear: Start with one. Pick the strategy that resonates most with where your team is struggling right now.
Maybe you know communication has been sparse. Start there. Maybe you've been stuck in "waiting for normal" mode. Name that and shift it. Maybe your team has been spinning on things they can't control. Do the two-lists exercise. Or maybe morale is low because nothing feels complete. Launch a two-week sprint.
Just start somewhere.
The antidote to chaos isn't having all the answers. It's leading with steadiness, with intention, with adaptability. It's about creating calm in the center of the storm.
And that's exactly what People-Forward Leadership™ is designed to help you do—lead with awareness of yourself, build empowered teams who can weather uncertainty together, and create a culture that learns and adapts continuously instead of waiting for stability that may never come.
Your team is looking to you not for guarantees, they know you can't provide those, but for steadiness. For a sense that someone's at the helm who sees the reality clearly and is navigating thoughtfully.
That's what these four strategies give you. Not perfection, but direction. Not certainty, but agency.
So here's your challenge for this week: Pick one strategy. Just one. Implement one action step. Notice what shifts.
You can't control the chaos, but you can absolutely control how your team responds to it. And that response starts with you.
Well that’s it for this episode. I hope this conversation gave you some practical tools to create more calm and confidence in your workplace, even when the external environment remains unpredictable.
If this episode resonated with you, share your insights on social media and tag me. I'd love to hear which strategy you're implementing first and how it connects to your own leadership development.
And, if you found value in today's conversation, please take a moment to give us a 5-star rating and positive review of the show. It helps other leaders find us, and that means we can impact even more people together.
Until next time, continue to lead with intention, adapt with purpose, and remember calm is something you create, not something you wait for.
Keep leading people-forward.
I'll see you soon!
