If Leading Feels Heavier Right Now, This Is Why

Leading in Turbulent Times – What People Need to Hear From You Right Now

If it feels like people are carrying more weight into work lately, you’re not imagining it.

We are living in a period marked by turbulence on multiple fronts. People are witnessing violent images in their communities and online. There are ongoing global threats of conflict and instability. Economic uncertainty continues to affect job security, financial planning, and long-term confidence. For many, these forces are not abstract. They are psychological, emotional, and sometimes material.

People do not leave this at the door when they log on, walk into meetings, or manage teams.

What This Moment Is Doing to People

Psychological research is clear that sustained uncertainty and exposure to violence have real effects on mental and emotional functioning.

Repeated exposure to violent events, even through video, can lead to vicarious trauma, anxiety, hypervigilance, sleep disruption, and emotional exhaustion. These effects have been documented even among people who were not directly involved in the events themselves, according to the American Journal of Community Psychology.

Economic uncertainty adds another layer. Studies cited in the Journal of Economic Psychology show that job insecurity and financial unpredictability are strongly associated with anxiety, depressive symptoms, rumination, and a reduced sense of control, even before any actual loss occurs.

When uncertainty becomes chronic, people often experience cognitive overload. Their nervous systems remain in a heightened state, scanning for threats. Over time, this can lead to emotional numbing, irritability, reduced motivation, and difficulty concentrating, according to research presented in Review of Behavioral Economics. While the research was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s responses to economic uncertainty caused by external events tend to be similar regardless of the cause of it.

Importantly, fear and anticipation alone are enough to produce these effects. Harm does not need to be personal or immediate to be psychologically taxing.

How This Shows Up at Work

Under these conditions, work performance is affected in ways leaders sometimes misinterpret.

You may notice people struggling to focus or think strategically. Decision-making slows, not because people do not care, but because their mental bandwidth is depleted. Small tensions escalate more quickly. Communication becomes shorter or more guarded. Some people withdraw, while others appear reactive or overly cautious.

These are often labeled as engagement or performance problems. In many cases, they are stress responses.

The Pressure Leaders Are Carrying Too

If you lead people, you are not immune to any of this.

You are likely balancing concern for your team with pressure to keep the organization strong, make sound decisions, and plan amid uncertainty. You may feel responsible for providing reassurance while privately managing your own stress, questions, or fatigue.

This matters because leadership presence is contagious. People take emotional cues from those in charge. The steadiness or strain you carry is often felt by others, even when nothing is said.

What Leaders Need to Do First

Before addressing your team, it helps to take stock of yourself.

Notice how stress is showing up for you. Is it impatience, urgency, overcontrol, or withdrawal? What uncertainty feels most activating right now? Awareness matters because regulation precedes communication. A calm, grounded presence does more to stabilize others than any carefully worded message.

This does not require oversharing. It requires intention, pacing, and emotional clarity.

What Leaders Can Do for Their Teams

Leadership in moments like this is not about having perfect answers. It is about creating psychological stability while continuing to move forward.

Acknowledge reality. Naming that times are challenging reduces cognitive strain. Research shows that acknowledgment alone can lower stress responses and increase trust.

Create space for people to be heard. Structured opportunities for sharing concerns, even briefly, help people feel less alone. Listening does not require fixing everything. Feeling heard restores a sense of agency.

Increase visible support. Make mental health resources easy to access and normalize their use. Research published by the National Institutes of Health on the relationship between financial worries and psychological distress among U.S. adults shows that access to support tools, including counseling and digital mental health platforms, is associated with improved well-being and greater resilience during periods of economic stress.

Provide clarity where you can. Predictability helps calm nervous systems. Communicate what you know, what you do not yet know, and when updates will come.

Demonstrate concrete action. Share what the organization is doing to remain stable and thoughtful in its decisions. When people understand the why behind actions, uncertainty becomes more manageable.

What People Need to Hear

What people need right now is not false certainty or forced optimism.

They need to hear that their reactions make sense in this environment. That they are seen as humans, not just performers. That leadership is paying attention to both results and reality.

In times of sustained uncertainty, people listen less for answers and more for steadiness.

How you show up, how you acknowledge the moment, and how you support others may matter more right now than any strategy deck or quarterly goal.

That is leadership in turbulent times.