Transcript:
Hello and welcome to our impactful projects and Planning series. I am Jami Yazdani. In today's session, we'll talk about a challenge I hear all the time about from leaders and mission driven organizations, how to lead with confidence when you don't have all of the answers. And so I think there's this common myth that strong leaders have to project absolute certainty at all times. So we feel this immense pressure to have the right answer or the perfect plan to solve every problem, and in times of great uncertainty, this pressure only grows. So we know our teams feel anxious. We know our team is looking for answers, but the issues may feel too overwhelming, and even if we could come up with a perfect plan or an answer, which problem do we tackle first? So what tends to happen is we wait for us to dot all the i's, cross, all the T's, for things to resolve themselves, for a brilliant solution or answer to appear, or for other challenges to take away the attention. And while we are waiting, we go silent,

but like the monster under the bed that gets bigger in the darkness, uncertainty grows in silence. So when we go silent for lack of a perfect or even a good answer, our team members will naturally fill in the spaces left by that silence on their own, they may wonder if we know something we aren't sharing, or even if we care. Assumptions grow, reactions speed up, and tension rises, and the trust we think will lose by not having a perfect answer also gets lost in the silence, because trust doesn't come from displays of omniscience, it comes from transparency. So we need to push past this desire to have all of the answers before we can lead. So how do we show up for our team in times of uncertainty, I have four strategies to share today that can help us navigate uncertainty with confidence, acknowledging uncertainty, communicating what is known, establishing a rhythm and adopting an agile mindset. So let's talk through each one.

So the first thing we need to do is the thing we may not want to do, which is end the silence, even though we don't have the answer. So we do want to not acknowledge the uncertainty calmly and and directly. So what does this mean?

It means that we name it. So what is is it that's uncertain? What is it that is unclear? What is this thing that is making us all so anxious? And so when we name it, it brings it out of the shadows and into the light. We are also letting our teams know that we see the problem, that we see what they are worried about that we really do care. And so we'll talk through some examples of how to phrase this and what this looks like in a moment after we've named the uncertainty, we want to communicate what we do know and what we don't know.

And so to do this, we typically want to identify and share two things. First, share what you do know right now. So even in times of uncertainty, there are usually things that we do know about a challenge or situation, maybe it's steps to resolve it, or at least we know what has not changed. So the act of identifying what we do know can also help create more calm for you as the leader. And when we share it, it starts to bring some certainty to the uncertainty. So the second thing that we want to share is what is still being figured out or assessed. So what we don't know. This could be information that you're waiting on, situations that need to be resolved, or decisions that haven't yet been made. This clarity about what is known and unknown creates the transparency that can really bring some calm to your team, acknowledging the uncertainty and sharing what you do know clearly and calmly brings our team into the conversation. Leadership is not about carrying all the work, all the decisions, all of the emotional weight, alone. If you could do it alone, you wouldn't need a team, and it's likely that when an answer or a plan.

Plan does come along, you won't be implementing it alone. It's also possible that the answer that you're looking for is something that you can find together, but you won't know until you start that conversation. After we've started the conversation, the next thing we want to do is establish a communication rhythm. We want to let our folks know exactly when you will revisit this issue with them. Part of what makes uncertainty so uncomfortable is not only that we don't know the answer or the resolution, but also that we don't know when it will come, and so we can reduce some of this strain and introduce some predictability into our environment by sharing when and how often we will revisit this issue, this uncertainty. Will we discuss it again at the next staff meeting, at the the team meeting after that? Is there a date when we expect to hear more or we'll have more information, even if we don't expect a change or resolution anytime soon, there really is a value, and checking in with your team. The check in helps acknowledge that uncertainty, that it still exists, and can reassure your team that they haven't missed anything, or that it's fallen off your radar. It's also possible that since your initial conversation, feelings about the issue have changed, or that folks have new ideas for how to manage it or move forward. So we give them an opportunity to discuss that, if we do a check in

now, what does this look like in the real world? So we what might we say to acknowledge uncertainty, share what we know, and create a communication rhythm?

So let's look at a common example of uncertainty, especially right now, in the mission driven space. Let's say there's a concern about continued funding for a project or program. Maybe a funder has been pulling or limiting funding, but we aren't sure whether it's going to impact us or how bad the impact may be.

At a team meeting, I might say something like, you've likely heard about the challenges with our funding partner, and I know there is concern about the possible impact on our program. What I know is our grants manager has reached out to the funder for more information. What I don't know is when we can expect to hear back, I'll put this on the agenda for our next meeting. So this very simple, short example hits on the three key areas. We're acknowledging the uncertainty, sharing what we know and don't know, and setting an expectation for when we would revisit the issue. Now we do want this to be a conversation, so in reality, I would add some questions into that script. So I might ask, what concerns do you have as part of the acknowledgement so I've named the uncertainty as I see it, but this question can give folks space to share their own concerns after I share what I know and don't know, I might also ask, what questions do you have? Maybe there are additional things I know or don't know that I didn't think to cover, and either before or after, I share the communication rhythm. I might also ask, what would be most helpful to you right now? This question, could send the conversation in a couple of different directions. Maybe folks do have suggestions or ideas to share, to help address the issue. In this case, maybe it's ideas for other funding or ways to streamline, or they might request a different communication rhythm, or some other way of dealing with the uncertainty.

Let's look at another example. Often there is uncertainty that is far beyond our control, so it's not a situation where we can call the funder, but something larger playing out in our organization or environment. So let's say there's some leadership changes in your organization. So in this situation, I might say, I imagine you may be worried about the leadership changes in our organization. What I know is that the mission and goals of our team have not changed. While I don't know what changes might come in the future, I'm available to talk, and I will share once I hear more, what would be most helpful to you right now. So in this case, we are acknowledging, acknowledging the uncertainty. We're sharing what we do know that nothing has actually changed yet, and we're offering to talk more and share more, we're also asking what might be most helpful. So this is not just a, you know, an example pulled out of the air. I was in this exact situation many, many years ago as a new leader, where.

Was a very public firing of our organization's president, and so my staff was really worried and upset, and I use very similar language to this to start a conversation during one of our staff meetings. So what we ended up discussing was how our new annual plan that we had created was just as relevant today as it as it was before the firing. And so what we agreed to was to keep working on those goals, and that if changes did come up, if a new leader wanted us to do things differently, we would deal with that when it came what we also started talking about was that if there was going to be a new leader, maybe we should start thinking about preparing information about the impact of our work and our team so that we would be ready to share when a new leader was named. And so this conversation was really a rallying point, and it eased a lot of our anxiety as a team.

And so a few tips for having these conversations. First, share only what is true right now. So not speculation, not gossip, not even what you would bet your life on is going to happen next, but what is true right now in this moment. And so we are trying to ease uncertainty with certainty. So we want to make sure that we share what we really do know right now. And so this is part of creating that calm, confident sharing. If folks have questions and you don't know the answer, say So trust is really lost if we pretend to know more than we do if we share that speculation. Now, if they have a question and you can find out the answer to that question, do try to do so and share that back. Now, in some situations, it may actually help to work with your team to identify what is known, and so this may help reduce some speculation and really bring more certainty to an uncertain situation. So my first three recommendations are really about what to do, sort of once uncertainty has already it's already upon us. My last recommendation is more about the future, and it's really about creating a team environment that is better prepared to deal with uncertainty. So that's adopting an agile mindset. And so when we think about agile approaches, we often think about speed, we think about less structure. But the reality of agile approaches is that what we are doing is helping our teams navigate uncertainty with greater clarity and a deeper sense of shared ownership. And so agile project management specifically asked us to shift away from the assumption that complete clarity must exist before work can begin. And so in Agile clarity is developed over time through action, reflection and collaboration. So how can we begin to create this mindset with our teams as a leader? This often begins with a shift from control to clarity. So rather than attempting to define every step for our teams in advance, agile leaders focus on establishing a clear direction and ensuring that priorities are well understood. This creates space for your team to think, to contribute, to adapt their approach as the work and environment evolves while still remaining aligned to that shared purpose, and so in times of uncertainty, this practice can prepare us to focus on what is known, get comfortable with what is unknown, and trust that We can adapt together. Another agile approach is to establish regular check ins and reflection points, which create opportunities to surface questions, test assumptions and refine the path forward before challenges become more complex. And so when we practice this in certain times, teams and leaders become more comfortable asking questions, sharing challenges and working through uncertainty, which is going to make it easier when bigger uncertainty arises.

Agile teams are also known for what's called failing fast. So it's the practice of testing ideas early on in a project so that the team can identify what is not working before you've put significant time and resources into something. And so in these environments, failure is treated as a learning opportunity. And so this.

Not only creates more comfort with uncertainty, but also more resilience when things don't go as expected. So in normal times, if we don't position ourselves as the one with all the answers as the only solution to challenges, if we allow our teams to share and ask questions. If we allow folks to try things and learn from them, These practices will serve our teams very well in times of uncertainty.

Okay, so those are some quick tips on leading without all the answers. So don't stay silent and wait until we have all the answers. Engage your team in a conversation now where you can acknowledge what is uncertain, communicate what you do know and what you don't know, and establish a rhythm for how we will revisit the conversation looking ahead. We also want to adopt a more agile mindset within our teams that's going to build the muscles we need to better handle uncertainty going forward. So before I take any questions that you have if you're curious about our approach to project management and planning and how it helps leaders bring clarity and calm to complex and uncertain work, visit YazdaniConsulting.com approach to learn more, and because your plan is only as strong as your people, we can work with you to create the tools, processes, systems, practices your team needs to execute with clarity and confidence. You might be interested in our clarity to action framework, our guide shares seven strategies for better planning and project management. You can use these strategies to spark discussion with your team, bring stakeholders into alignment and move with clarity from Big Picture priorities to steady progress. This practical guide and two companion worksheets is available at YazdaniConsulting.com, resources, great. So I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have about leading without all of the answers, please do

add them in the comments. I'll give folks a few moments to add their questions. If I'm not able to answer your question live, I'm happy to respond later in the comments. You can also find all of the ways to contact me at YazdaniConsulting.com Contact please reach out to me if you'd like to talk more about leading teams.

Okay, so a question is, there is so much uncertainty right now, I don't even know which conversation to have with my team, and so I would say, I think you're not alone in feeling this way. Many organizations are seeing uncertainty at sort of every level around us, within the organization, and then the things happening with our teams and our projects. And so what I would say is you can absolutely and really should acknowledge the larger issues and how all of the uncertainty is playing a role in the stress that people are feeling. But I would start the conversation really focused on an issue or challenge that is having the most kind of direct impact on your team right now, or the thing that really people seem to be most concerned about at the team level and for the work that they're doing. And so whether it's like funding uncertainty or staffing uncertainty, we can begin the conversation by acknowledging the issues that are larger and around us, but we can kind of then dive in, in terms of what we know and don't know to those issues or challenges that really are having the most negative impact or causing the greatest worry for your team in the moment. So you know, as an example, I might acknowledge that there's general uncertainty around federal funding, let's say, but focus the conversation on funding concerns around our project or a local funding partner, all right, so feel free to comment or reach out to me with any additional questions that you have, and thank you for participating in our impactful projects and Planning series.

You can visit YazdaniConsulting.com/IPP to find out about upcoming sessions and to view all of the recordings of the sessions in this series. Thank you. You.