When the Ground Moves, Be the Steady One

To be honest, I feel like I could write an entire book about leading through change. For about eight years of my leadership career, change felt like a revolving door.

Staff changed.

Organizational structures changed.

Priorities changed.

Funding changed.

Expectations changed.

Leadership changed.

Projects changed.

Sometimes we were navigating several of those things at the exact same time.

And while I certainly did not handle every change perfectly, I learned a tremendous amount about people during those years!

I learned that people respond to change very differently.

I learned that communication matters even more than you think it does.

I learned that uncertainty can be harder on people than the actual change.

I learned that fighting reality consumes an incredible amount of energy.

And perhaps most importantly, I learned that people are watching the leader to figure out how worried they should be.

That doesn't mean leaders need to pretend everything is fine, but it does mean that when the ground underneath your team is moving, they need someone willing to stand steady.

Change Is Neutral. We Give It Meaning.

This has become one of the most helpful ways I think about change: The change itself is often neutral. We assign meaning and emotion to it.

Imagine your organization announces that it is implementing a new software system.

That's the change. Then our brains start working:

This is going to make my job so much harder.

Finally! The old system was terrible.

I'm never going to figure this out.

This could save us so much time.

Why are we changing something that already works?

What if I can't learn this as quickly as everyone else?

Same software. Same change. Completely different reactions because each person is filtering that change through their own experiences, fears, expectations, confidence, and circumstances.

I do this too. We all do.

One of the most useful practices I developed was learning to catch myself doing it. When I feel an immediate emotional reaction to a change, I try to separate what is actually happening from the story I am telling myself about what it means.

Instead of immediately thinking: “This is bad.”

I try to ask: What objectively changed?

Then: What am I assuming about that change?

Those are not always the same thing. And sometimes, once you separate the facts from the story you've attached to them, the change looks very different.

This doesn't mean removing emotion from leadership or telling people they shouldn't feel something. Feelings are real, and people deserve space to process them. Sometimes change also comes with very real loss, frustration, or consequences.

It just simply means recognizing that our first emotional interpretation is not necessarily an objective assessment of reality.

That little bit of separation creates space.. Space to process. Space to gather more information. Space to challenge our assumptions. And ultimately, space to respond intentionally instead of reactively.

Your Team Is Reading You

One of the hardest parts about leading through change is that you are experiencing the change, too. You might be frustrated. You might disagree with it. You might have no idea how something is going to work. You may have received the exact same information your employees did approximately twelve minutes before they walked into your office asking questions.

Been there!!

Leadership means recognizing that your reaction carries additional weight. If you panic, people notice. If you catastrophize, people notice. If you complain about the decision, people notice. If you communicate defeat before anything has even happened, people notice.

People feed off the energy of their leaders.

That doesn't mean you become a robot, and it definitely doesn't mean toxic positivity.

You can say:

“I don't have that answer yet.”

“I know this is frustrating.”

“I have concerns too.”

“Here's what we know right now.”

“Here's what we can control.”

That is very different from feeding the anxiety. Exceptional leaders don't pretend uncertainty doesn't exist, instead, they help people function inside of it.

Stop Spending Energy Fighting Reality

This lesson took me some time.

When change happens and we don't like it, our instinct is often to resist.

Sometimes resistance is absolutely appropriate. If something is unethical, unsafe, harmful, or simply based on bad information, leaders should speak up.

Question it.

Challenge assumptions.

Offer alternatives.

Recommend a different course.

Use your influence.

...But once a legitimate decision has been made and the direction is clear, there comes a point where continuing to fight it stops being leadership and starts becoming an energy drain.

You have to recognize when you have crossed that line.

Acceptance does not mean agreement.

That distinction is huge.

You can disagree with a decision and still accept that it is the current reality. Once you accept reality, you can start asking productive questions:

What can we influence?

What needs to change about our approach?

What obstacles can we remove?

What does my team need from me?

How do we make this work as well as possible?

That's where your energy becomes useful again.

Don't Just Say “Embrace Change”

I have never particularly loved the phrase embrace change. Sometimes change sucks.

People lose coworkers they love.

Responsibilities shift.

Programs end.

Budgets get reduced.

A familiar leader leaves.

Someone gets moved into a role they didn't ask for.

Processes people spent years building disappear.

Telling someone to “embrace change” in those moments can feel incredibly dismissive. I think exceptional leaders do something different: They acknowledge what is being lost while helping people move toward what comes next.

Both can exist.

“This is hard, and we are going to figure it out.”

“I know you didn't want this, and here's what we can control.”

“This isn't what we expected, so let's talk about what needs to change in our plan.”

You don't have to convince everyone that change is wonderful. You need to help them navigate it.

Give People Something Solid to Stand On

When a lot is changing, people need to know what isn't changing. This is where the work from the last several weeks becomes incredibly valuable.

Return to the priorities.

Return to expectations.

Return to purpose.

Return to the things your team can control.

You might say: “A lot is changing around us right now. But our commitment to serving our customers well hasn't changed.”

Or:

“The structure is changing, but these three priorities remain the same.”

Clarity creates stability. If everything feels uncertain, give people something solid.

Here's what we know.

Here's what we don't know yet.

Here's what isn't changing.

Here's what we can control.

Here's what happens next.

Sometimes that is the best change-management strategy you have.

Communicate More Than Feels Necessary

One thing I learned from navigating a ridiculous amount of change is that leaders almost always underestimate how much communication people need.

You have probably been thinking about the change for days, weeks, or months.

Your employees may have learned about it yesterday.

You are on repetition number 37.

They are on repetition number two.

Those are very different places to be.

Keep communicating. And when there is no update? Communicate that too. “I don't have anything new to share yet. The timeline is still the same, and I will update you as soon as I know more.”

Silence creates a vacuum... And as someone who has lived through lack of communication during major change, I can confidently say that people are very good at filling vacuums with assumptions.

Grit Matters, But So Does Recovery

Leading through prolonged change requires grit. There are seasons when leadership really does require you to put your head down, stay persistent, solve the next problem, and keep moving.

...But I also think we have romanticized grit to the point where it sometimes means:

Just keep going no matter what it costs you.

That's not sustainable.

Grit isn't pretending you aren't tired, but it is maintaining commitment while adjusting how you get there.

Sometimes resilience means pushing.

Sometimes it means recovering.

Sometimes it means changing the plan.

Sometimes it means admitting: “This isn't working anymore. We need a different approach.”

Exceptional leadership is not stubbornness... It is the ability to remain grounded in purpose while staying flexible about the path.

Be the Steady One

You will not always control the change happening around your team. You won't always agree with it. You won't always know how it will turn out. And sometimes you will be responsible for leading people through something while you are still figuring out how you feel about it yourself.

That's leadership.

Your team doesn't need you to predict the future.

They don't need you to manufacture enthusiasm.

They don't need you to have every answer.

They need you to help them distinguish facts from assumptions.

They need honesty.

They need clarity.

They need communication.

They need someone willing to question what should be questioned, accept what cannot be changed, and focus everyone's energy on what comes next.

Exceptional leaders cannot always create certainty, but they can create consistency and steadiness inside uncertainty.