Perhaps today you are feeling like so many of my clients right now who are watching the global news and feeling a sense of frustration, exhaustion, or even fear?
Regardless of where I find you in the world today, are you experiencing turbulent times of your own—maybe personally or professionally?
The past two weeks many of my clients have asked me how to lead in such turbulent times, and honestly, I have been wondering that myself too.
In a world where headlines showcase leaders behaving badly—where narcissism seems to be rewarded and kindness viewed as weakness—all leaders face a critical choice: will we follow these examples we see in the press and in senior leadership, or will we rise to create a different leadership standard?
Looking for the answers, I decided to explore a more transformational leadership style.
My answer is to choose kindness. A friend often says, “be kind and gentle with yourself,” and his brilliance translates to our leadership style too.
Now is the time to be the leader others desperately need, someone who is kind and compassionate and fully aware of the turbulence and how it is impacting how the people that work with you feel.
While I strongly feel this transformational leadership mindset is important and preferable at any time, it’s absolutely essential when uncertainty dominates and change feels constant.
Remember your team is watching and waiting to see how you’ll respond.
Will you demonstrate the integrity, compassion, and accountability that seems missing?
Wherever this finds you in the world today, you might have memories of times when leaders have disappointed you? In your career, have you had leaders you didn’t enjoy working with because there was a personality clash, or your values weren’t aligned, or they were just mean? We have all experienced those.
And we can all agree, how we respond is our choice.
Our response is in our control. We can’t control others’ behaviors or thoughtless word choice or mean spirits. We can only control our reaction to them.
The mindset we bring to work each day and how we lead our home, community, place of worship, or workplace is constantly being watched by those around us: our team, colleagues, clients, friends, and kids.
If we want to truly transform our workplaces, and move from transactional to transformational we need to start with mindset, pay attention, and manage our messaging with more accountability.
Start with Mindset
Transformational leadership begins with a conscious decision about who you want to be as a leader. What do you want your leadership brand to be? If you’ve read Attention Pays, you know that I believe it is intention that makes attention valuable. You know that where you direct your focus and attention will get you the results you seek.
Could you choose to focus on:
- Compassion over convenience
- Long-term impact over short-term gains
- Team development over personal achievement
This mindset shift isn’t passive—it requires daily recommitment and intentional practice. I have often shared that thoughts create feelings. Choose to see everyone you meet as ‘smart, capable, and good’ as my friend Tamsen Webster says. I like this mindset.
Pay Deliberate Attention
In our attention-deficit society, where everyone is competing for your attention, truly seeing and hearing others has become revolutionary. When was the last time you:
- Put your phone away during a one-on-one meeting?
- Asked a team member about their challenges and then truly listened?
- Acknowledged someone’s contribution specifically and publicly?
These seemingly small gestures send powerful messages about what—and who—you value.
Transformational leaders listen to listen, they don’t listen to respond. They “listen with their eyes” as my young friend Donovan says.
Create Safety with Communication
Clear, consistent communication creates the psychological safety teams need to thrive during uncertainty. With so much changing globally and sometimes locally, we know people all respond very differently to change. You might be someone who thrives on constant change and you may have people in your life that take a little longer to accept and incorporate change. Clear communication is kind. Share what you know to help people on their own journey.
Practice:
- Straight talk without unnecessary filtering
- Transparent sharing of both challenges and opportunities
- Vulnerability about what you know and don’t know
- Consistent reinforcement of core values and direction
As Tamsen notes in her excellent book Say What they Can’t Unhear—create messages so clear and compelling they permanently shift how people see their world.
Model Accountability
When trust in leadership is fragile, accountability becomes your superpower:
- Own your mistakes quickly and completely
- Do what you say you’ll do, every time
- Hold high standards consistently for everyone (especially yourself)
- Celebrate progress, not just perfection
Consider regular connection points with your team to check their progress against targets in their 1:1 meetings, project status updates, and in your board meetings.
Like this content? Did you know that Neen provides action items to help leaders lead transformationally to her newsletter subscribers? Be the first to read Notes from Neen, the bi-weekly newsletter where Neen shares content like that, as well as practical recommendations and more bonus content! Sign up here.
