(Photo: Illustration by Ray Dak Lam)
Each weekday, in our Management Tip of the Day newsletter, HBR offers tips to help you better manage your team—and yourself. Here is a curated selection of our favorite Management Tips on leading through uncertainty.
Become a More Courageous Leader
When uncertainty strikes, the default reaction is often to retreat. But courageous leaders don’t wait for clarity—they create it. Courage is not about being fearless; it’s about acting in service of a purpose, even when fear is present. And it’s a skill that can be developed. Here’s how.
Reframe fear through story. Courage starts with the stories you tell yourself. Look for patterns in the chaos and turn them into a narrative that gives you agency. Frame your actions as a moral mission or draw strength from personal belief systems to reduce fear and move forward.
Build confidence deliberately. Competence builds courage. Study best practices until they become instinctive, expand your problem-solving toolkit, and focus on what you can control. The more prepared and grounded you are, the easier it is to take bold, self-assured steps.
Take action—even if it’s small. You don’t need to know the whole path—just the next step. Evaluate the situation, test a small hypothesis, learn from it, and adjust. That momentum will build clarity and conviction.
Rely on others. Courage grows in connection. Lean on allies for emotional support, resources, and honest feedback. Constructive input from others strengthens your decision-making and reinforces your sense of purpose.
Stay calm. Regulate fear with rest, rituals, and reframing. When emotions spike, stay grounded so you can act from a place of poise.
This tip is adapted from “Now Is the Time for Courage,” by Ranjay Gulati.
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Consider “Strategic Hibernation” When Facing Headwinds
Business leaders today find themselves navigating a whiplash of regulatory measures on issues such as trade, climate change, and diversity and inclusion. As political headwinds grow stronger and reputational risks more volatile, one option leaders can consider is strategic hibernation. This doesn’t mean cutting back or pivoting away from the challenge. It’s about building flexibility and preserving your organization’s options. Here’s how:
Maintain your core assets. Don’t abandon your mission or dismantle essential teams. Preserve infrastructure, retain key talent, and find adjacent work to sustain momentum. This way, when conditions shift, you can resume operations without rebuilding from scratch.
Monitor political signals. Strategic hibernation isn’t passive waiting; it requires sharp political awareness. Track regulatory shifts, identify inflection points, and anticipate when you can reenter with speed.
Adjust your external visibility. In turbulent environments, say just enough to stay aligned without compromising your values. Quietly continue your work (under new labels if necessary), reduce public messaging if needed, and coordinate messaging to avoid drawing fire.
This tip is adapted from “Is This a Moment for Strategic Hibernation?,” by Christopher Marquis.
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Communicating with Your Team When Times Are Tough
When business challenges mount, your team doesn’t need spin—they need clarity. Here’s how to be transparent, steady, and constructive, even when you don’t have all the answers.
Acknowledge what’s working. As you address uncertainty, point to areas of progress. Use a “yes, and” approach: Yes, things are messy—and we’re doing good work. Be honest about challenges without slipping into blame or false optimism.
Make space for real questions. Don’t redirect or minimize concerns. Ask your team what’s weighing on them and how it’s showing up in their day-to-day work lives. If no one speaks up, check in with trusted team members behind the scenes to get a fuller picture.
Respond with care. When you don’t have answers, explain what could influence the outcome. Share details only if they affect the team’s reality; disclosing what’s irrelevant or uncertain creates confusion.
Stick to the facts. Avoid speculation. Use data and observable progress to ground your message. Reinforce how the team’s work supports key business goals like revenue or efficiency.
Model resilience. Show up with calm and clarity. In tough moments, consistency builds trust—and helps your team focus on what they can control.
This tip is adapted from “How to Communicate with Your Team When Business Is Bad,” by Rebecca Knight.
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Use Subtraction to Boost Efficiency—Without Weakening Your Business
When uncertainty hits, it’s tempting to start making cuts. But indiscriminate subtraction can backfire, making systems brittle, reducing visibility, and draining long-term value from your business. Before making any cut, apply this triple test: Will it improve efficiency, build resilience, and elevate prominence? If the answer is no, rethink it. If the answer is yes, approach the subtraction in one of six ways.
Eliminate what no longer adds value. Cut components, steps, or rules that don’t serve a clear function. Done right, this boosts speed, reduces costs, and sharpens focus without undermining trust or capability.
Substitute complexity with simplicity. Swap out high-maintenance tools or workflows with simpler options that meet the same need—faster, cheaper, and more reliably.
Consolidate overlapping functions. Merge tasks, systems, or touchpoints into integrated solutions. This reduces duplicative efforts, improves continuity, and enhances the user experience.
Hide complexity behind clean interfaces. Keep systems powerful under the hood, but conceal nonessential details so users only see what they need, reducing overload while keeping functionality intact.
Pause, don’t delete. Suspend features or services that aren’t needed now but may return. This preserves flexibility and avoids burning bridges.
Abstract the backend. Use interface layers to simplify user interaction with complex systems, making advanced functionality accessible and scalable.
This tip is adapted from “In Turbulent Times, Consider ‘Strategic Subtraction’,” by Vijay Govindarajan et al.
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Ask Smarter Questions in the Face of Uncertainty
In a world of constant disruption, the instinct to seek clarity can lead you to oversimplify complex problems. Instead of defaulting to questions that inadvertently narrow your focus, ask questions that expand your thinking and reveal wiser paths forward. Start with these four.
What decision today will still make sense a year from now? This question pushes you beyond short-term pressure. It invites you to prioritize decisions that align with long-term values and direction, helping you move from reactive to resilient.
If this decision became a case study in leadership, what would it teach? Use this to test not just the logic of your decision but its message. What example are you setting? What does it say about your team’s character, clarity, and culture? Will it build trust, respect, confidence?
What if this isn’t the storm—what if it’s the climate? Stop waiting for volatility to pass. If disruption is the norm, ask what needs to change permanently—in your systems, culture, and strategy—so you can endure, not just survive.
What’s the cost of waiting? Delaying may feel safe, but inaction carries hidden risks. This question reframes the moment and urges you to act with intention before momentum is lost.
This tip is adapted from “In Uncertain Times, Ask These Questions Before You Make a Decision,” by Cheryl Strauss Einhorn.
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Lessons from the Pandemic on Leading Through Disruption
Five years after Covid-19 upended life, one thing is clear: Major disruptions aren’t rare—they’re constant. Whether triggered by global crises, technological shifts, or economic volatility, leadership today demands more than crisis management skills; you must transform uncertainty into opportunity. Here’s how.
Proactively engage with uncertainty. Shift from rigid annual planning to continuous scenario forecasting. Identify emerging trends early and build cross-functional teams to act on new opportunities—before they become crises.
Balance employee and company needs. One-size-fits-all policies don’t work. Focus on performance over presence. Gather real feedback, design hybrid models that support both engagement and business goals, and ensure accountability through clear milestones, not return to office mandates.
Test new ideas—quickly. Move beyond slow planning cycles. Foster a culture where experimentation is routine, failure is seen as valuable data, and rapid iteration is the norm. Start with small pilots, scale fast, and stay adaptable.
Make smart decisions with limited information. You won’t always have perfect data. Define clear decision-making principles, build rapid-response playbooks, and refine your strategy as new insights emerge.
Communicate to build trust. Be transparent, direct, and authentic. Acknowledge uncertainty while reinforcing stability. People trust actions over words, so align your messaging with leadership that backs it up.
This tip is adapted from “5 Pandemic-Era Lessons on Leading Through Drastic Change,” by Rae Ringel and Lisa Kay Solomon.
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Steady Your Team in Anxious Times
In times of uncertainty, your team looks to you not just for strategy, but for reassurance and direction. To move people from fear to confidence, you need to show up with clarity, conviction, and calm. Here’s how.
Communicate a clear purpose. Share a reason for being that feels bigger than day-to-day tasks. Frame the work as part of a collective mission built on shared values. Tell stories that connect individuals to the larger goal so they feel pride and ownership in their role.
Embody the values you promote. Live the principles you want others to follow. Show through your actions that you’re deeply committed to the organization and its people—especially when it requires sacrifice. Authenticity builds trust, and trust fuels courage.
Model calm focus under pressure. Care deeply, but don’t get consumed by results. Own setbacks, learn from them, and move forward steadily. By maintaining composure, you become a stabilizing force that helps your team stay grounded, motivated, and focused on progress.
This tip is adapted from “How to Keep Your Team’s Spirits Up in Anxious Times,” by Ranjay Gulati.
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