I have been on vacation this week, reading Miracles of Love by Ram Dass on the beach. The ocean behind the pages made one theme stand out more clearly. He was describing moments in history when people sensed that the structures they relied on were shifting, and how unsettling that can feel. He talked about cultural drift where familiar reference points stop providing the same guidance, and people are left trying to navigate uncertainty without clear precedent. That idea mirrors a lot of what leaders describe today. We are operating in an environment that evolves faster than our playbooks, and we feel the responsibility to make confident decisions even when clarity is not available.
Even in our own team, this experience shows up as pressure to do and react quickly when something feels new and uncomfortable. Deadlines feel tighter and resistance is a constant dynamic to manage, all because the environment signals urgency. Leaders shorten discussions and reply to emails in quick, short language. Teams answer quickly because the sense of urgency is the new normal. I literally did this this week.
None of this is usually announced or intentional. It is a gradual tightening that starts inside leaders and then travels through the organization without anyone explicitly authorizing it.
When that happens, the culture begins to shift in quiet ways. People focus more on motion than understanding. Meetings lean toward action rather than exploration. Listening becomes more functional and less curious and it shows up through tone, tempo, and the subtle belief that slowing down signals a failure to respond. The group adapts to the leader’s energy, and the change becomes the norm before anyone consciously realizes what’s happening.
As Mel Robbins said, “leaders bring the weather.”
Some leaders develop the ability to pause inside that storm. They stay in the conversation long enough to hear what is actually happening rather than what they hope or fear is true. They hold space for perspective before they move and they create conditions where people are able to contemplate and process, not just react.
A practical entry point to shifting this dynamic is self-observation. Notice the moments when you are answering before you have fully listened, or when you feel your shoulders rise slightly as you prepare to exert control. Sometimes a single breath and a steadying of tone is enough. When leaders reset themselves in real time, the room often resets with them. It is subtle, but it changes the cognitive and emotional environment people are operating in.
Ram Dass used the metaphor of learning to move with the ocean rather than trying to freeze a single wave. Reading his words with the sound of the water behind me made the image impossible to ignore. In a business context, it suggests that leadership strength today has less to do with holding firm to a fixed stance and more to do with staying fully present in motion. “Going with the flow.” That’s adaptability.
A mentality of moving from force to flow drives results that performance frameworks alone cannot replicate.
I’ll be on vacation for the next week. But in my next newsletter, I’ll explore the other pattern that emerges under uncertainty, the instinct to tighten control. This was also the topic of my second TEDx talk which I delivered in Dallas last weekend! I can’t wait for it to go live and share it with you. Clinging to control can appear purposeful and disciplined, and sometimes it produces short term order, but over time it can limit thinking, trust, and adaptability in ways that hold organizations back.
Elsewhere In Culture
The events at the BBC reveal how leadership pressure rises when trust begins to move. The criticism around the edited Trump speech raised questions about judgment inside an institution that depends on public confidence. When content is shaped for millions, small decisions carry real weight. The resignations reflect a recognition that credibility is a leadership responsibility, not simply an editorial one. High-visibility organizations earn trust through precision and through the discipline to review their own processes before the outside world does it for them.
Accountability becomes visible in moments like this. Tim Davie and Deborah Turness stepped aside without defensiveness, which sent a clear signal about ownership. Leaders often talk about responsibility, but culture forms around what they prove in difficult circumstances. The BBC will implement systems that reinforce careful judgment when the stakes are high and the environment is politically charged. Culture grows through the mechanisms that protect clarity and through leaders who respond with honesty when something goes wrong.
The new SHRM data confirms something leaders have been sensing for months. Most jobs are not on the edge of automation, yet the anticipation of change is already shaping how people work. Ninety-four percent of roles show some protection through low exposure or strong nontechnical barriers, but that has not eased the quiet tension inside many organizations. When workers hear about automation at scale, they start questioning their future place. That emotion moves fast. Leaders add structure because they want certainty. Teams increase pace because they want to prove relevance. The pressure forms long before any real displacement shows up.
What will define the next phase is not a wave of job loss but the way leaders guide people through evolving expectations. GenAI is already touching millions of roles, and that influence will grow. The risk is a culture that absorbs change through urgency instead of clarity. (See above). Workers need to understand how their tasks are shifting and how they can build capability for what comes next. They need leaders who treat transformation as shared work, not a technical upgrade.
Surrender to Lead is the book Joe Terry and I wrote to redefine what leadership really looks like. We have both seen how often leaders think strength means control, but it doesn’t. Real leadership starts when you let go. When you surrender your ego, your need to have all the answers, and your attachment to certainty, you create space for trust, accountability, and real results.
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