How to Keep Your Values Strong Amid Uncertainty
We’re living in an age of high uncertainty, with unprecedented challenges facing our planet and its inhabitants. A strong connection to your values helps you navigate uncertainty, but how do you keep your values strong when it feels like everything is up for grabs? And as a leader, how do you support your team through such a volatile period?
1. Stay Grounded in Reality
It’s important that a leader keep people grounded in reality. People are going to feel uncertain, and may be worried about being asked to take on more responsibilities when they already feel stretched to the limit or even about losing their jobs. It’s your job as a leader to tell your employees what you can realistically do for them, and what is currently out of reach.
Saying "Everything will be ok" might seem helpful, but when you both know everything might not be ok, it rings hollow. On the flipside, people will tend to fill a vacuum with speculation about worst case scenarios.
Care grounded in reality can help build trust. That might sound something like "These are tough times for sure. We are doing everything we can to find a way through."
You should never make promises you can’t keep, but that doesn’t mean you have to let your people fall. Your team will be worried and scared, so staying realistic about what you can do for them while being compassionate is key.
At the same time – test the evidence, check things out and, as best you can, make sure you’re proceeding on fact-based evidence and not hearsay or panic.
2. Remember what has worked in the past
Things always change. The tricky part is that uncertainty – in business, our personal lives or other parts of life – can sometimes force us down certain pathways even if they aren’t ideal.
It can be helpful to think about what you have successfully handled in the past that could help you now. Similarly, what values have been constant for you through both rosy times and challenges over the years? How can those constants serve you now?
Remember why you are doing something, whether it’s running a business, creating art, spending time with your family… anything. Sometimes we can get so caught up in how things look or feel (especially when they look or feel urgent) that we forget our why.
Purpose, passion and values are all grounded in what inspires us; they keep us going even when times get tough and options aren’t ideal. They also help us stand for something greater than ourselves – helping others reach their goals or fulfil their mission – which helps others trust us. That trust can itself make it easier to navigate through challenges together.
3. Be Positive and Kind
In times of uncertainty, fear and worry, it’s important for leaders to stay grounded in (realistic, non performative) positivity. It might seem like an oxymoron—how can you be positive when things are, to put it bluntly, bad? But actually, uncertainty provides a great opportunity for leaders to show compassion and care. Catch people doing things right — tell them how much they mean to you, acknowledge their strengths, contributions and talents.
When things are uncertain, people sometimes focus more on finding scapegoats rather than solutions. We make assumptions and place blame on others instead of trying to understand what’s really going on, who’s really responsible, and what we can do together. Yes, you still need to be willing to make hard decisions, but in times like these, it’s your responsibility as a leader to help people find a way towards solutions – whether that be best ... or least worst.
4. Forget Perfection – Be Realistic About What You Can Achieve
When you are facing extreme uncertainty, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. You’re trying to accomplish everything when nothing feels possible. But perfectionism is counterproductive, especially when there isn’t a clear way forward. The worst thing you can do is set yourself up for failure by feeling like everything has to be perfect right now, because that will only increase stress levels in your workplace (and more broadly) and paradoxically, make you less likely to succeed.
Instead, consider your MVP (minimum viable product). In product development, this means the minimum standard for a product or service to be usable, so you can release it faster and get feedback. In leadership, it's about focusing on the necessities before the nice-to-haves. MVP is about making incremental progress towards your goals rather than perfection in one go. This doesn't mean creating something of lower quality, but instead creating things that are good enough and building from there. In the context of leading through extreme uncertainty, your MVP might look a lot more pared back than how you'd operate when time, clarity and resources are in abundance, and that's ok.
5. Set Clear Priorities as a Team
In a situation of extreme uncertainty your team of 8 might have 8 perfectly reasonable, but wholly incompatible, ideas about the way forward (ok, that might happen in “normal” times too).
When a team can’t agree on priorities, they lose focus and fall apart. Every decision becomes a debate rather than an action. To prevent infighting, set clear priorities as a team first and then get moving toward your goals.
It helps to take a step back and look at the big picture. Why are you all here? What do you want to achieve together long term? You might not be able to predict what will happen next or know exactly how you’ll achieve success—but if you have some sense of direction and can communicate about it clearly with each other, you stand a much better chance of weathering any changes that come along.
6. Get out of Your Head – Talk it Out With Others
People who become leaders often gravitate toward self-sufficiency, but in times of uncertainty, it’s important not to keep your feelings and doubts bottled up. By speaking openly with a close friend or family member, you can get valuable insights from someone who isn’t directly affected by your actions at work. These confidants should be people you trust and respect—that way, you’ll feel safe being honest about what you think and feel. It may also help to find an accredited coach (yep) or professional counsellor or therapist with whom you can explore these issues.
By opening up with others outside of work, it will become easier for you to maintain a connection to your values through both your personal and professional lives, even when things get tough at work.
Focus on the things you can control: one of your best tools as a leader in times of uncertainty is to remember that you don’t have control over what happens outside your organisation. What you say and how you act is within your control and doing so in alignment with your values sets an example for your team. And your values are 100% under your control.
Until next week,
Take care of yourself and others
Madeleine
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