Guiding Your Team Through Uncertainty

When you need to lead the team through ambiguity, you need a strategy to navigate the 'hallway' of decision-making; in this episode, we discuss: 

• How do you unlock the power of decisive action amidst uncertainty? 
• Strategies for reframing uncertainty
• Techniques to maintain motivation and support within your team 
• How to navigate personal leadership challenges with purpose

Chapters

• 0:00 Navigating Uncertainty as a Leader
• 7:45 Remembering Yourself in Leadership

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, this is Jill Griffin. Welcome back. This week I want to talk to you about how you lead a team when things are very uncertain. Now, uncertainty can be anything from marketplace conditions not sure about a piece of business, not sure about what a client is doing it can also be the greater uncertainty that is continuing to be in all of our worlds, and navigating that as a leader can feel daunting, especially when the decision making relies on you and solely you, and you don't necessarily have the answers or you're not going to have them yet. Maybe you're waiting on data, maybe you're waiting on something to shift. So what I often hear people talk about is that they have executive leadership or the board of directors or a senior client waiting on them and the team is kind of looking for them to what to do and their brand is navigating the way forward. That is what they're known for. But every once in a while and we're not always sure why, but we can get into that in another episode Every once in a while it might be your own exhaustion, it might be because you're hungry or angry or lonely or tired.

Speaker 1: 1:08

I call that halt. You're suddenly faced with a ton of decisions that all have potential consequences and dependencies and you don't necessarily know which way to move forward. So some of it can be your own brain and some of it could also be that you just don't have the data yet. I call this the hallway. It's a long, narrow passage with lots of closed doors. Each door represents a possible direction and when you're in here too long, and by too long, it could be minutes, it could be hours, it could be weeks, it doesn't. It depends on every situation, right, but when you're in it it can feel confining and it can sort of feel the amplification of the pressure that you must choose wisely. And how you approach things next is really important, because otherwise it starts to feel like that board game we used to play as a kid, which is shoots and ladders, this idea that whatever you choose has a way upward or a way downward, and it all of a sudden feels very overwhelming to have all these pieces of unknowns. When you're thinking about how you move forward, you also maybe playing some thoughts with yourself like all right, we got to move forward, or the team can be really demotivated. We don't want to lose anybody right now, right, and as you're in that space, your own energy on spinning on, it is going to rub off on others or going a sense that maybe they don't really know what we're doing here. How are we moving forward? Why aren't they making a decision?

Speaker 1: 2:37

So this hallway, this pause, first I'm going to tell you to take a deep breath, right, like just breathe for a second and you might need to leave the conference room, shut the zoom or the teams. You might need to find a way to recalibrate and use the pause strategically. And then I want to ask you to reflect on yourself, how you want to play big, how you want to move forward, so that the team and everyone who's depending on these decisions that you need to make know what to do and then can also trust you that this is the best past poet. So, instead of asking yourself certain questions that may have a little bit of an energetic leak or a wobble in them, I want you to find the way to pivot on the various questions you're going to ask yourself and find the command or the power question. Here's what I mean by that. So, instead of being in the thought loop of saying what should I do right now, I want you to shift yourself and shift your energy, and might even mean putting both feet on the floor and sitting up straight in your desk and saying to yourself how do I right? It's a very different approach when you ask yourself what should I do versus how do I. Do you see the difference? Do you see that feeling difference? Some other wobble versus power or command questions? Why is this happening Versus okay, how do I want to respond right now? Next, how am I ever going to get this done or under deadline? We don't have the data. Okay, what is one small step forward I can take right now? How am I ever going to handle this? We are running behind. What resources can I lean on for support? So it's again. It's asking yourself the question through a level of power and command and releasing that wobble.

Speaker 1: 4:39

This refresh of your mind empowers you to explore possibilities and seek solutions. There's that old adage that within every challenge is the solution, and think about it as the two different sides of a coin. Within every challenge is the solution. The second thing I'm going to say is get ready and prepared, and we do this ahead of time. We've talked before on this podcast how ready and or readiness is a mindset, is an attitude of being able to act swiftly when necessary. This is mindset work. It is growth mindset. Preparedness involves doing the groundwork, making plans, honing your skills, getting your team up leveled.

Speaker 1: 5:23

You want to think about how you're using this pause whether it's an hour or whether it's a longer pause to really reflect on the objectives and the approach that you want, so that you are more both ready and prepared for when uncertainty hits in the future. So, while in the hallway questions, you could ask yourself what do I hope to achieve at the end of this pause? How do I want to approach unknowns in the future? What are my own personal self care acts that I'm going to do? What am I doing for my mindset? How am I going to approach this in the future? How do I want to network and make sure that I'm connected internally and externally? For the next time I'm in the hallway, are there things that you're going to do to upskill your team, improve your own efficiency and that of the team? Height and creativity, collaboration, brainstorming. How will you improve a relationship Clients, board of directors, executive leadership how do you want to amplify your impact? How do you want your own personal brand to be portrayed internally and what are you going to do to develop more efficient processes.

Speaker 1: 6:41

So again, when we're in the emotion of the problem, it is really hard to think that is fight or flight, right? The zebra doesn't think should I get away from the lion? The zebra just gets away from the lion and then, once it's away, it's able to think. So what I'm saying to you is, when you're in that hallway where you don't have a solution or you don't have the answer or the data you need to move forward, spinning on the problem is not going to release you from the uncertainty. Pausing and potentially using your brain to ask yourself different questions or not focusing on the direct issue in the moment is going to give you space to breathe. It's like a lot of times when you wake up and suddenly you have a great idea in the morning after a good night's sleep, or you get an idea in the shower. Why You're not constantly noodling the idea? You're pausing and finding the space. That's the hallway, that's knowing that you can use this time strategically. You get to come out of this time better suited, ready and prepared.

Speaker 1: 7:45

The question I would have you ask yourself this week in closing is what are you forgetting to remember about yourself when you are in that leadership position and all eyes are on you and you're feeling the swell of uncertainty take over your chest or wherever you feel it in your body. I always feel it in my chest and my throat. What are you forgetting to remember about yourself? All right, friends, have a beautiful week. If any questions, send them to me at hello at jillgrifroncoachingcom, and I will get those answered and maybe even talk about them on air. Have a beautiful week and I'll see you soon.