How do I help my team stay focused when there’s so much uncertainty?

What Matters in a Crisis

Something happens when the world goes sideways: leaders start questioning everything…including themselves.

In my working life, it feels like we’ve lurched from crisis to crisis every four or five years. The dot-com bust. 9/11. The 2008 recession. COVID-19. And now this — whatever “this” eventually turns out to be.

Each one has felt different. And each one has been different.

But something holds across all of them: the leaders who stay grounded during chaos aren’t the ones who had all the right answers. They’re the ones who had built the right anchors before the storm arrived.

3 Anchors Leaders Need to Navigate a Crisis

Over the years, I’ve seen three things consistently help keep leaders grounded and their team focused. Fortunately, the three build on each other.

1. Systems

Systems let you make a decision once for a whole category of actions, rather than draining your energy making the same call over and over again.

Think about follow-up. Every day, people send inquiries that deserve a response. Without a system, you’re making a fresh decision every time: Should I follow up? When? How? That’s exhausting. With a system (like, every form submission automatically triggers an assigned follow-up action) nobody falls through the cracks, and you’re not spending emotional energy re-deciding something you already decided.

Good systems can adapt. When things are changing fast, a solid system bends to serve the situation rather than breaking under pressure. That’s what makes them worth building.

2. Habits

Habits go a layer deeper. Where systems are built, habits are baked in.

After you do the genuinely hard work of making something habitual, it just happens. Often without you realizing it. A leader with a strong follow-up habit will keep following up even if the follow-up system breaks down. It feels natural, because discipline has gotten it to a point it is natural.

The difference matters especially in a crisis. Systems can fail. Habits tend to survive.

3. Values

Values are underneath everything else. They’re what orient you when systems fail and habits aren’t quite enough.

Values tell you what’s important and how to prioritize. If you deeply value timely follow-up, you’ll know instinctively that making the call now matters more than scheduling the next blog post. You won’t need a system to tell you. The value does the orienting work.

If you haven’t named your values clearly, the worst time to figure them out is in the middle of a crisis. But a crisis can actually bring clarity. It shows you what you’ll fight for and what, honestly, was always expendable.

When You Find Yourself in Chaotic Times

It’s easy for you and your team to become disoriented when things fall apart. That’s just what crises do. The ground feels unstable. Your footing falters.

But tending these three anchors — your systems, your habits, your values — gives you something stable to focus on. And that stability isn’t one-size-fits-all. When you know team’s values and preferences, you can lead in a way that is authentically yours, even in the hardest seasons.

You don’t need to lead the way someone else would. You need to lead the way you lead: grounded, clear, and oriented toward what actually matters.

Want to get clearer on your leadership style? Knowing your preferred leadership style is a great place to start figuring out your anchors. Take our free Leadership Style Assessment to find your preferred leadership style and three others you can choose to lean into. Knowing your options helps you orient yourself.