Leading Through Uncertainty

As I sat in the room with 25 other business leaders having real conversations about what’s really going on in each of our businesses, I noticed something.

Different topics. Different industries. Different challenges. Same thread running through all of it.

Uncertainty.

Not the “we have a tough quarter ahead” kind. The deeper, more elusive, harder-to-identify kind.

Hearing these different perspectives on the same pervasive fog sapping clarity and confidence snapped together some observations from the previous week that I hadn’t yet connected…giving form to this amorphous sense of urgency rooted in fear inside of me.

The Pattern I Almost Missed 

The first observation was from my own industry.

Over the last two decades, I’ve noticed the pendulum of what companies are looking for in marketing companies swing back and forth several times between technical specialists and strategic generalists. 

I never really thought about the force behind those shifts until I heard someone paraphrase Peter Drucker, “in times of stability you need management; in times of uncertainty you need leadership” and then it immediately made sense.

When the environment is stable and predictable, you know what you need. You hire specialists to execute it. You build systems to manage it. Certainty rewards precision.

When the environment is uncertain and shifting, being overly precise can become a liability. You need someone who can see the whole board, navigate ambiguity, and help you find clarity when the path isn’t obvious. Uncertainty demands something more.

Reactions That Won’t Get You Through

Leaders typically react to the fog of uncertainty in one of three ways.

Fight is the most natural reaction, especially for entrepreneurs wired for action and growth. Double down. Work harder. Execute the plan with more intensity. Push through. This works for short, sharp disruptions. But in a sustained, shifting environment with no clear resolution in sight, fight starts to work against you. You may be executing a plan that is no longer relevant, driving hard toward a destination on a map that the landscape has already redrawn.

Flight looks like action but moves in every direction at once. Throw out the plan. Change everything. Over-react to every new signal. Pivot before the last pivot has had a chance to breathe. This one is seductive because it feels decisive. But over-innovating in the middle of uncertainty often creates more noise and confusion than the uncertainty itself. You end up making it harder for your team and your clients to follow you.

Freeze is paralysis dressed up as prudence. Endless analysis. One more meeting before we decide. Wait until the tariffs settle. Wait until the technology shakes out. Wait until the market sends a clearer signal. The uncertainty becomes the reason nothing moves.

None of these are inherently incorrect reactions. All three are completely understandable. I know I’ve visited all three at different points over the last year. But none of them are what this moment is asking of you…how this moment needs you to respond.

Choose to Respond

When you choose to respond with resiliency, optionality, and adaptability, you choose to take control of what you can. You choose to lead.

Resiliency

When the fog is thick, you are going to bump into things. You are going to take wrong turns. You are going to go down dead ends that cost you time, money, and energy. That is not failure. That is navigation without a clear map.

The leaders who get through uncertain times aren’t the ones who avoid the walls. They’re the ones who hit the wall, dust themselves off, and keep moving. Keep learning. Keep adjusting. Resiliency isn’t a personality trait you either have or don’t. It’s a practice. It’s a muscle to strengthen.

A decision you make every time the fog wins a round.

Accepting that is where resiliency starts.

Optionality

Not every signal in the fog deserves a response. Not every obstacle requires a detour. Not every new piece of information demands a new plan.

But knowing which ones do…that’s the work.

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, frames decisions in three categories: Hat, Haircut, or Tattoo choices.

A hat you can change anytime. Try one, don’t like it, put it back and grab another. Low cost, low stakes, move quickly.

A haircut takes a few weeks to grow back. You might feel a little foolish in the meantime. But it’s temporary and usually worth the experiment after just a bit of thinking.

A tattoo you live with. Some choices are irreversible…doors you can never walk back through. They leave a mark. Those deserve your deepest, most careful attention.

The trap most leaders fall into during uncertainty isn’t making bad decisions. It’s spending tattoo-level energy on hat and haircut choices. Decision fatigue makes a coward of us all.

Optionality isn’t about keeping every door open. It’s about knowing which doors are worth the key. Being more discerning about what you’re discerning.

Adaptability

Water always knows where it’s going: it’s moving toward the ocean. But it doesn’t argue with the landscape. It flows around the rock. It finds the crack. It takes the shape of whatever container it’s in without losing what it is.

Lately, I’ve been trying to be more like water. To know where we are going while responding and course-correcting to the environment around us. To flow instead of force.

For GBG, we are becoming a Human-Centric, AI-Powered marketing company. That’s the ocean. But how do we get there? We’re testing. We’re piloting.

Custom-trained tools as part of client onboarding. AI sales tools built on years of marketing work as training documentation. Custom programs to drive more effective research and outreach.

We didn’t plan all of these. We just stay open to what feels like the next best step for our clients.

Having a direction is not the same as having a rigid plan. The direction keeps you oriented. The openness keeps you moving.

Be adaptable like water.

The Opportunity

Uncertainty isn’t going away. The fog isn’t lifting. The question marks aren’t becoming exclamation points anytime soon.

But that’s not the tragedy. That’s the opportunity.

The pendulum has swung. The lack of stability requires leadership.

And leadership starts inside. It starts with you deciding (in the middle of the fog, with incomplete information and no clear path) to respond intentionally and not react impulsively.

To build Resiliency from friction.

To practice Optionality with discernment.

To flow with Adaptability like water.

The fog is real. 

So is your ability to lead within it.

What will you choose?

Lead With Energy,

Derek