How to lead through uncertainty

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Where do we stand when the ground underneath us is shifting? What if the ground doesn't stop shifting and an acceptable "new normal" never emerges?

In the context of the recent U.S. presidential election, Harvard Business Review (HBR) commissioned Laura Empson, Professor in the Management of Professional Services at Bayes Business School, and Professor Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Cambridge Judge Business School, to write an article that spoke directly to the world's prevailing mood of uncertainty and anxiety. "How to Lead When the Future Feels Unpredictable" has now reached No. 1 in HBR's "hot list" of most-read recent articles.

In the article, Professors Empson and Howard-Grenville explain that the U.S. election is just one strand of what is coming to be known as the "Age of the Polycrisis."

The article explores the concept of liminality. Liminal experiences involve a prolonged separation from normal ways of being and doing, and represent a break from the familiar without fully replacing it. Instead, they are both disturbingly different and confusingly similar at the same time.

When liminal experiences come to an end, they leave a mark of change on those who have survived them forever.

"Many of the leaders I speak to describe feeling helpless and confused, uncertain what to do but knowing they are expected to do something," Professor Empson said.

"Their organizations need them to provide clarity in troubling times.

"A good place to start is with three basic but very big questions: 'What do we value?', 'Where do we stand?', and 'How can we move ahead?'"

A liminal experience gives leaders a chance to question their own assumptions about the way the world is and should be, and to ask whether those assumptions are still serving them. When leaders are clear about what they and their organizations stand for, they can help their colleagues identify common ground and negotiate liminality together.

"Now is not the time for grandiose and vapid purpose statements," Professor Empson continued.

"Instead, leadership must focus on reaffirming the core purpose of (and indeed all) organizations, which is to deliver something that customers value and to provide a place where their employees feel they belong. The leadership challenge looks a little simpler if individuals stay focused on those two fundamental goals and encourage the people they work with to do the same."

As the article explains, people tend to adapt to prolonged liminality by withdrawing into helplessness or lapsing into cynicism. But although liminal times are unsettling, leaders can usually have more agency than they realize.

"We can gain confidence from thinking back to 2020, when we suddenly found ourselves confronted with the pandemic—and surprised ourselves with our resourcefulness and resilience," Professor Empson added.

"The pandemic was an extreme time of liminality. If we are struggling to feel hopeful right now it is worth remembering what we can achieve when everything around is uncertain."

More information: How to Lead When the Future Feels Unpredictable. hbr.org/2024/11/how-to-lead-wh … P-hero-latest-text-1

Provided by City University London