Editorial
Research Report
The AI Transformation 100: 100 Concrete Ideas for Fixing How We Work
"The world feels heavy right now."
That's how I opened a recent meeting with my team.
Instead of pretending nothing was happening — or shutting down conversation in the name of productivity — I acknowledged the uncertainty and injustice that were weighing on everyone. I didn't take sides. I wasn't interested in having a political debate. My goal was to create space for the complex emotions we were all carrying.
Because when hard things go unspoken, they don't disappear. They show up as distraction. As irritability. As disengagement.
People are scrolling through headlines between meetings. They're processing sadness, anger or frustration in isolation. They're wondering, "Is anyone else seeing this? Am I the only one bothered?" When no one names what's happening, employees feel powerless and alone.
That isolation erodes focus — and ultimately performance.
Psychological safety doesn't mean turning work into a therapy session. It means acknowledging reality so your team can return to their responsibilities with steadier footing.
Acting with empathy reinforces your relationships with your team, and it makes you a better manager. A Catalyst survey found that employees with empathetic leaders are more than twice as likely to be highly engaged at work—76% versus 32% of people with less empathetic leaders. And employee engagement drives results.
As Donald Thompson, author of The Employee Engagement Handbook, explains: "If you don't provide the stability to help your team navigate the chaos, their distraction can undermine productivity and threaten your organization's bottom line. Leaders have a responsibility to support their employees with consistency, clarity and compassion. That's how you cultivate a resilient workforce."
Your role as a leader isn't to fix global instability. It's to create stability inside your sphere of influence.
Begin by Managing Your Own Distractions
Before you can steady your team, you have to steady yourself.
One person cannot control what's happening in the world or the country. You can only control your response to it. Remember, the chaos you're feeling doesn't have to control you.
There are moments when unplugging is not avoidance — it's wisdom. As author and entrepreneur Jes Averhart recently shared, "Often, you just need to PUT IT DOWN. And when you've rested and you feel strong again, you can pick it back up. Putting something down doesn't mean you don't care. It means you care enough to recharge so you can go the distance."
That advice resonates deeply. Leaders often feel they must carry everything: every headline, every issue, every emotional ripple in their organization. But you control how much you carry.
Managing your own distractions may mean:
- Limiting your exposure to social media. I used to unwind by scrolling through Instagram, but lately the content served up to me hasn't been funny or inspiring. I'm scrolling less and unsubscribing more.
- Reducing how much news you consume. I want to stay informed, but when I feel my chest and shoulders tighten, I know it's time to unplug.
- Prioritizing physical health. When your body feels better, your mood improves. This could mean scheduling time at the gym, eating better or simply taking your laptop outside to work.
- Seeking community outside of work. Meeting friends can help you process emotions constructively. You might also find that there are actions you can take as a group that wouldn't be possible as an individual.
You cannot lead when your energy is depleted. Emotional regulation is not callousness or disinterest — it's discipline. And discipline creates stability.
Now Lead with Clarity and Compassion
Acknowledging the heaviness is only the first step. Empathetic leaders must also act in meaningful ways to help employees balance their emotions while still accomplishing essential work.
That's the tension.
Leaders are feeling pressured, too. Budgets are tight. Profit margins are shrinking. Companies are reducing headcount, which means remaining employees are carrying more responsibility. The question becomes: How do you make space for your team's emotional reality without sacrificing performance?
The answer lies in intentional structure.
1. Provide Flexibility Where it Matters
Flexibility doesn't lower standards. It simply shifts how work gets done.
When stress and emotions rise, rigid systems create unnecessary pressure. Examine your team's workload with intention. Separate essential outcomes from habits, preferences and legacy processes that no longer serve the moment.
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Is your team spending time on work that doesn't move the business forward? Can AI streamline repetitive or low-value tasks? When an employee is distracted, it can be more efficient to pause and revisit the task later. Postponing or canceling non-essential work can create space for your team to rest and regroup.
When leaders remove friction, teams regain energy for the work that actually matters.
2. Communicate Priorities Relentlessly
Ambiguity increases anxiety. Clarity reduces it.
Identify what must be accomplished immediately and what can wait. Break large initiatives into smaller, achievable milestones. Offer short-term check-ins that keep people focused without micromanaging.
Ask your team: "What would help you stay on track this week?" They may need to skip a meeting to focus on an upcoming project. They may need clearer deadlines. They may need tasks broken into more manageable pieces.
When everything feels urgent, prioritization becomes a crucial leadership skill.
3. Protect Relationships — Eliminate the Noise
Connection builds resilience. Performative activity drains it.
Isolation can increase negative emotions, but that doesn't mean every meeting is worthwhile. Preserve meaningful connections while cutting anything that doesn't contribute to results or trust. Authentic check-ins, collaborative problem-solving and shared wins strengthen teams. Forced engagement and unfocused discussions exhaust them.
Are you creating space for real conversations? Are your team interactions purposeful — or just habitual? What gatherings strengthen trust? What meetings could disappear without consequence?
Strong relationships anchor teams during instability. When you protect connection and eliminate noise, you create focus without sacrificing humanity.
The Leadership Muscle This Moment Requires
Challenging times reveal whether empathy is a talking point or a leadership discipline. Performative empathy acknowledges difficulty and then moves on. Operational empathy does something more demanding: it names reality without escalating anxiety, models steadiness when emotions run high, clarifies what matters most, and removes unnecessary friction so people can focus. It holds the line on excellence while honoring humanity.
Your team does not need you to solve the unsolvable or carry the weight of the world on their behalf. They need consistency. They need clarity. They need compassion expressed through action. Resilience does not grow from pretending everything is fine. It grows from shared understanding and deliberate leadership choices that create stability, even when circumstances refuse to cooperate.
The world feels heavy right now, but we decide how much we carry. If we lead well, we help our teams lighten that load—not by pretending the chaos doesn't exist, but by facing it together.
Editor's Note: How else can leaders support teams during chaotic times?
- Build Organizational Resilience to Thrive in an Uncertain World — Now is the time for leaders to ask: Are we building a five-year business or a hundred-year business? The future belongs to those who choose resilience.
- Your Employees Are Getting Things Done – But For How Long? — Burnout doesn't announce itself. It builds quietly, one borrowed burst of energy at a time. Here's what leaders need to know before the debt comes due.
- Pro-Worker AI Is a Business Strategy, Not a Moral Imperative — When the Brookings Institute makes the business case that pro-worker AI is the smart move, will businesses pay attention?
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