Leadership in Uncertain Times

Introduction
With the impact of the pandemic (Covid-19) and continuing increasing pace of technological changes, there is greater uncertainty and levels of turbulence than normal 'ups and downs"..
However,
"...Leaders have little or no control over the external competitive environment, they have astonishing influence over the internal performance environment, including employee engagement, morale, and productivity. How can leaders help their people flourish during extreme uncertainty?......Extreme uncertainty doesn't have to result in discouragement, disengagement, or lost productivity..."
Timothy R Clark, 2024
There are counterintuitive examples of where performance clients as uncertainty clients
Four strategies to handle the extreme uncertainty
1. Create deep trust (this can be done by creating extreme predictability in leadership behaviour so that employees have a predictive understanding of his or hers behaviour, eg
"...We know is values, we know is skills, we know his track record, so we can forecast how we will react and what he will do. He is utterly predictable - in a good way. When a leader feels expectations over time, it creates an informal contract with employees, exceed reinforcing bond of .....trust......your trustworthiness becomes a repository of their fears, allowing them to move forward with more confidence..."
Timothy R Clark, 2024)
2. Inoculate with vision (leaders role is to paint a portrait of the future and aspire others towards it;
"...In times of extreme uncertainty, a vision gives people lasting motivation beyond the survival instincts to perform work and absorb stress..."
Timothy R Clark, 2024
Need to get the organisation to look beyond the transitory turmoil to a larger, long-term vision and perspective).
3. Increase honesty and transparency (need to make sure your rhetoric matches reality, ie need to make promises that you can keep
"...Under extreme uncertainty, people tend to develop threat rigidity and a degraded ability to interact and make decisions. They also catastrophise, filling a communication void with negative chatter, distorted interpretations, dire predictions, and fatalistic scenarios. It's important to express confidence in your ability to meet the future - just make sure you don't give unfounder's assurances, which is simply dangerous..."
Timothy R Clark, 2024
As a leader you need to communicate that you
    - don't know all the facts
    - you can't remove all the risk
    - you can't promise zero loss
     - you can't eliminate all the pain.)
4. Frame uncertainty as an opportunity (organisations essentially do 2 things: execute and innovate.
"...execution is the creation and delivery of value today. We do this by exploiting the 'certainties' of the status quo, which includes things like current strategy, capabilities, and resources. Innovation, on the other hand, refers to creating and delivering value tomorrow, which we accomplished by exploring uncertainties..."
Timothy R Clark, 2024
By framing uncertainty as an opportunity is a way of decoupling fear from uncertainty and replacing it with confidence, curiosity, and anticipation
Summary
These 4 strategies can provide internal stability in the face of external upheaval; create confidence and continuity amid extreme uncertainty.