At the beginning of the pandemic, I wrote the post, "Put on your own mask first." That was good advice then and it is good advice now. But the foundational challenges that we are facing today require a little more than just maintaining a confident and positive attitude.
Acknowledge uncertainty and factor it into your plans, but have a plan and stick to it
People need to know that their leaders have a plan. They don't need to know all of the details and they don't have to understand the full context, but they do need to know that there is a plan and they need to understand the basic rationale behind it. Nothing makes people more nervous than the feeling that their leaders don't have a coherent plan. It is OK for the plan to change when it has to, but at any given time, there has to be a plan of record that team members can anchor themselves to.
Encourage questions and answer them honestly
One of the hardest things about leading in uncertain times is that you face this double-whammy of not having buttoned-up answers to everything but needing to get in front of the team more often and sometimes with little time to prepare. Hiding from the team until you have a polished message or just talking at them is the absolute worst thing to do in these times. Show up as your authentic self and keep coming back to the plan and the principles underneath it.
Show your team that they can count on you personally
In difficult times, bad leaders break. Even good leaders make mistakes. But their teams see them acknowledging their mistakes and doing everything possible to recover from them. Your team needs to see you as the one who is going to lead them out of whatever kind of mess they or your business have gotten into. They need to feel like you can solve any problem, even though in fact the way that you do that is by getting them to think about the problem in the right way.
Manage conflict proactively
Conflict is natural and can be a healthy part of team dynamics. Like a controlled burn, however, it can have really bad effects if it is not managed. In uncertain times, it's as though there is a ton of very dry tinder just waiting to explode on your team. You need to be extra vigilant to control the burn in these times.
Keep up the pace
When I run with my dogs, if the pace is too slow, they get distracted and the whole thing kind of falls apart. The same applies to teams. Stop/start, indecision, putting things "on hold" - you can't let these things slow the pace to the point where the distractions kick in. In uncertain times there are lots of distractions. You need to keep the dogs barking. Similar to managing conflict, this requires that you anticipate the stops and starts and keep things moving.
Celebrate initiative, agency and control along with success
Celebrating success is always important, but in uncertain times it really helps to link and label the evidence of initiative, agency and control that led to the success. When people have a sense that a lot of their world is "out of control" it really helps to show them, ideally with something that they have just completed, that in their job at least, they do have agency and control and all they have to do is take initiative.
In uncertain times, people need more from their leaders. You absolutely need to "put your own mask on first" and make sure you have the support of your own leaders, peers, friends and family, but you need to show up for your team - even when you don't have all of the answers and when you may be facing doubts yourself. Just taking the hard question, celebrating a small success, or helping personally with a small problem can have a big impact.