The signs are all around us. Across the globe, we are witnessing the harsh reality of war, trade tensions, rising prices, and declining consumer confidence. Closer to home, people feel overwhelmed by grim headlines and struggle to engage with other people’s problems. Even reformed smokers are lighting up again.
Here are just some of the comments that are cropping up in my coaching sessions with business leaders right now:
It’s well-known that crisis breeds opportunity, but first, you must ensure that you and your teams are battle-ready. Ask yourself these questions to discover how to pull yourself out of a tailspin:
1. Are you willing to sacrifice privilege for purpose?
In good times, we quietly amass perks: flexible schedules, performance bonuses, free food, wellness initiatives, and even in-office baristas. But we also acquire certain liberties and perhaps even a sense of entitlement as part of an unspoken psychological contract: Good times for us should be good times for me too.
In a downturn, the contract needs to be reset. Suddenly, your “non-negotiables,” like hybrid workdays and year-end parties, are up for renegotiation, and you may find yourself resisting, whether openly or behind the scenes.
If the answer is no:
Hanging onto privilege is a sign you are not facing up to reality. Downgrade to arm up and focus on trading comfort for meaning. Don’t pull all the brakes at once, but prune your perks. Revisit why you took this role in the first place, how it connects with your purpose and values, and consider what matters most to the people you serve – your customers, students, colleagues, and society. A global consumer company, for example, scaled back daily office perks, but doubled down on the annual “bring your family to work day” so that employees could show their loved ones the work they do and why it matters.
Control what you can, cut through the noise, and focus on delivering your core service, product, or advice.
2. Are you open about your moments of doubt?
When fatigue and uncertainty take root, we often find ourselves in a state of denial, acting on autopilot when what we need is to take time for self-reflection. Are you sharing your uncertainties openly with others rather than hiding in denial? Are you making decisions efficiently without excessive deliberation? Opacity fuels isolation – both yours and your team’s. Real courage is not projecting confidence, but naming what’s unclear and being open about your vulnerabilities.
If the answer is no:
Overcome your pride and overconfidence. When you share your doubts appropriately, you normalize discomfort and invite others to open up. Draw on what has worked in past crises. Control what you can, cut through the noise, and focus on delivering your core service, product, or advice in the best way possible.
3. Can you still fight the urge to check out?
Rising to the occasion is not a given. You or your team members may well feel a sense of paralysis. Leaders withdraw behind dashboards. Teams revert to familiar routines. The organizational pulse slows. But checking out is not the same as conserving energy – it’s surrendering to drift.
If the answer is no:
Help people take ownership of what feels overwhelming and delegate again if you find you have started to ‘take over’ for everyone. Look for signs of learned helplessness when people feel that “it’s just not worth the effort” or when someone says, “Why bother – we won’t make it anyway.” Call out the silences in meetings, the missed follow-ups, the lack of pushback, or the canceled team seminar. Dial up your presence, visibility, and vigor, and show commitment when faced with challenges.
4. Are you braced for criticism and ridicule?
Winning is a tough habit to break. Success breeds success along with guilty pleasures such as admiration, recognition, and prestige. When the wind changes, you may soon find you are never better than your last quarter, that your hero status is punctured, and your leadership authority is being questioned. Behaviors once seen as assets are now seen as liabilities: your humanity as too soft, your strategic vision as too far from the daily grind, and your inventiveness as a distraction from core performance. Expect your critics to become more vocal.
If the answer is no:
Stay rooted and connect with who you are as a person. Don’t chase applause. Instead show range and nuances. Display your capacity for detail if you are a dreamer, your bias for action if you are a thinker, and your empathy, even if you have a hard edge. Criticism will come. Show that you can take it and that you won’t break from it. Be ready to absorb the heat.
“If you are depleted in one area, you’re at risk in all.”
5. Are your reserves deep enough to pull through?
“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked,” as Warren Buffett once observed. That’s true emotionally as well as financially. Crises require physical stamina, cognitive edge, emotional capacity, and spare time. If you are depleted in one area, you’re at risk in all.
If the answer is no:
Focus on others, instead of pampering yourself. Show appreciation for colleagues. Recognize the unsung heroes in your system – the people that are rarely put in the spotlight but hold the place together. Giving appreciation is not soft – it’s mutual gain. Energizing others creates a strong bond and pays back immediately.
6. Are you seeing a vision of a better future on the other side?
When you are going through hell, keep walking. But if the walk feels pointless, then what? Leadership in a downturn isn’t just about surviving the storm – it’s about pointing toward clearer skies. If you can’t envision a better future, your team won’t either. People can tolerate hardship, but not hopelessness.
If the answer is no:
Don’t assume that your teams remember the long view. Crises make us short-sighted. A leader’s job is to set the direction and see things from above – gain distance from daily firefighting. Take time out to repeat what you are aiming for – or if necessary, redraw the future and the roadmap to get there, even in the urgency of the crisis. You’ll need something more than just “Let’s get through the quarter.” Clarify not just where you are going, but why it’s worth going there. People can survive hardship, but only if it leads somewhere.
7. Are you really in it together?
Doubt in the leaders, questions about the robustness, and the future of your company – or in yourself – quickly lead to high-profile defections, which further sap confidence. Crises put the balance between self-interest, self-preservation, selflessness, and self-sacrifice to the test. Fracturing is never far away. Some teams break with a bang, but most fracture quietly: a colleague pulls back, a high performer quietly disengages, and a once-solid relationship starts to feel transactional.
If the answer is no:
During a crisis, our self-confidence and self-worth tend to drop. There is no refuge in strong numbers, and mistakes are seen in a harsher light. Regulating distress is core to holding a team together. Make it a priority to recommit and renew your professional vows. Remind people – in words and actions – that their presence matters and that setbacks are part of your quest. That you see them. That they are not alone.
The hardest work during a downturn is that you need to disappoint people constantly.
Performing in a downturn is a very different discipline and dynamic. You may need to change what success looks like and how to get there. You may need to change the composition of your team and recommit personally.
A proven crisis leader will tell you that you must build capacity and commitment before the going gets tough and not in the middle of the slump. This goes for yourself and your team. And as one of my clients says, “The hardest work during a downturn is that you need to disappoint people constantly.” To say “I don’t know” when others want certainty. To let go of comfort to protect what truly matters. As we face the next wave of disruption, don’t mistake steadiness for silence or toughness for detachment. Lead with honesty, with your own voice.
Think about your answers to the seven questions and read between the lines. Look for nuggets and crumbs to give you hope and watch for signs of derailment and fracturing. If your answers contain too much “not really,” “maybe,” and “it depends,” then you need to take action before it’s too late.
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