Seven Tips for Leading Through Uncertainty and Driving Change

There are times when the speed and magnitude of change happening around us can feel overwhelming. So, how do we make sense of it all, navigate the complexities, and leverage the opportunity to move from a place of uncertainty to one of hope and change?

Alex Budak, a lecturer at the Berkeley Haas School of Business and Faculty Director for the Berkeley Changemaker Executive Education program, offers a powerful framework to help you move beyond weathering the storm and towards actively shaping its course.

1. Cultivate Dispositional Flexibility

Why do some leaders adapt to change better than others? Psychologist Stephen Zaccaro’s research points to three types of adaptability: cognitive flexibility, emotional flexibility, and dispositional flexibility—the most crucial, according to Alex.

“Put simply, Dispositional Flexibility is the ability to find optimism while grounded in reality. When faced with overwhelmingly scary and uncertain futures, two paths, neither of which are especially helpful, are most common: fear-based pessimism or blind optimism,” says Budak.

This mindset isn’t about unquestioning optimism or ignoring real challenges—you can both acknowledge a difficult situation and believe a better future is possible. The key is to be realistic about your present situation while not giving up hope for tomorrow.

Practicing dispositional flexibility will help you find agency in your response and have a balanced perspective grounded in reality, allowing for clear-eyed action.

2. Embrace Action

In times of significant upheaval, it’s easy to feel powerless. There are many events entirely beyond our control. But as singer Joan Baez wisely said, “Action is the antidote to despair.”

To act doesn’t require grand, sweeping gestures—action can take the form of small, deliberate steps. Even incremental changes can break the cycle of feeling overwhelmed and impart a sense of agency.

Whether it’s a simple check-in with a colleague or offering support to someone in need, these small actions create a positive ripple effect. Ultimately, your small steps will make it easier to take larger actions in the future.

3. Redefine Resilience

Many think of resilience as simply enduring pain and pushing through adversity. However, a more effective approach is to view resilience as staying strong for the long haul. This perspective requires tenacity and grit but also includes self-care, continuous learning, and thoughtful reflection.

When you’re facing a challenge, try reframing your thoughts to be about more than just the hurdles you need to overcome, and instead focus on any learnings as an opportunity to grow—even if you failed.

By consciously seeking growth, while balancing your own well-being, you’ll develop stronger leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills. Through difficult times, you’ll build resilience far beyond any immediate crisis.

4. Practice Empathy

Change, both good and bad, is a deeply personal experience. We all respond to change differently based on our personality and lived experiences. While this feels like common sense, research indicates that leaders often fail to consider how their teams will perceive and process internal and external change.

Empathy, the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes, is critical to successful leadership during uncertain times. By understanding your team’s diverse perspectives, you can tailor your communication and support to meet people where they are, ensuring that messages are delivered and truly heard.

Read more about empathy and connected leadership.

5. Shape Culture from Where You Are

Leadership isn't confined to those at the top. The concept of “norm entrepreneurship” proposes that everyone has the ability to become a changemaker within our spheres of influence. Just as an entrepreneur creates and scales a new venture, a norm entrepreneur introduces and reinforces new behaviors and cultural norms within a group.

Norm entrepreneurship can take two forms, formal and informal actions. Formal actions might look like setting or advocating for new policies. Informal actions can be as simple as modeling behaviors and positively reinforcing them in others.

Because informal actions are available to anyone, everyone has a unique vantage point to shape and sustain culture by consciously initiating positive norms.

6. Choose Where You Spend Your Energy

When faced with a barrage of changes in your personal and professional life, expecting immediate and perfect adaptation is unrealistic. The key is to choose the actions you focus on consciously.

Allow yourself a moment and identify the critical items that require your attention. Sustainable change is incremental, so take it step by step. It isn’t about taking 1,000 steps just for the sake of change; it’s about creating new behaviors and actions that serve you now and in the future.

This deliberate approach to change ensures that new behaviors are sustainable and serve you well beyond the immediate challenges.

Read more about thriving in times of change.

7. Courageously Serve Others

In times of uncertainty, it’s natural to feel fearful, look inward, and focus on self-preservation. But one of the most powerful leadership principles (and one of the Berkeley Haas Defining Leadership Principles) is going beyond yourself. By consciously choosing to serve others, you’ll improve your connections with everyone around you and foster a team, organization, or community in which you are all invested.

Often called “servant leadership”, this philosophy prioritizes the growth, well-being, and empowerment of employees to grow the organization through their commitment and engagement.

You don’t have to have an official title to employ servant leadership. It can manifest through microleadership, the sum of many small, individual moments. You might check in on a teammate, offer support during a tight deadline, or demonstrate adaptability in your interactions.

Give yourself permission to practice leadership—seize everyday opportunities to serve and uplift those around you to contribute to a stronger collective.

Final Note

Navigating uncertainty isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about embracing principles that empower you to act with intention and empathy. You can become an effective leader and changemaker when you cultivate dispositional flexibility, embrace action, redefine resilience, practice empathy, shape culture, choose change, and serve others. Find opportunity in the challenges you face—and bring others along with you.