Last week we explored the quiet ways uncertainty shapes leadership behavior and culture. There is another pattern that appears in the same conditions. Instead of moving faster or tightening pace, some leaders respond by holding more firmly to structure and control. It is a natural human tendency to want to grasp control of what feels uncontrollable, especially in high pressure environments. Underneath, the instinct is the same one we discussed earlier. It is a search for stability when the world feels unpredictable.
In many organizations, control becomes a reassuring signal. Leaders add checks, create approval steps, and lean heavily on familiar practices like dashboards and write-ups. These actions often begin with good intentions. They are attempts to create consistency and confidence. However what we’ve seen in our 35 years in business is that people don’t change because the new process demands it. People will act in alignment with what they believe. And if leaders feeling pressure get stuck in rigid control-based behaviors, they are choking adaptability. Initiative fades.
The warning signs are subtle. What looks like alignment is actually resentful compliance or a failure to execute that gets blamed on process. Conversations become more formal than they need to be. Assumptions go untested because challenging them feels inefficient or unwelcome. Results can hold steady for a while, which is why leaders sometimes miss what is happening. But eventually it bubbles into outright frustration or people leave without ever communicating what wasn’t working.
I have worked with leaders who learn to notice this tightening early. They bring questions back into the room when answers begin to dominate. They remain accessible even when pressure rises. They understand the difference between discipline and rigidity. Structure supports performance when it opens space for thinking and contribution. These leaders hold standards while protecting room for insight, dissent, and curiosity. They build cultures that are resilient and adaptable rather than fragile.
One practice that helps is paying attention to when decisions feel heavier than they should. Another is noticing when certainty becomes more important than accuracy. Those moments often reveal that control is doing emotional work rather than operational work. A leader who can pause there and say “I do not know yet” changes the tone of the room. That phrase does not weaken trust. It strengthens it. It signals honesty and invites others to bring forward information they may have been holding. The room becomes more truthful and more capable of solving the real problem.
Cultures grow stronger when leaders stay engaged with what is real, not with what feels safest. Today’s environment asks leaders to remain present, flexible, and responsible without shutting down curiosity. That balance does not appear through force, but through flow. It develops through awareness, humility, and the steadiness to stay open even while carrying accountability.
As you move through your week, pay attention to how often you default to answers instead of questions. It is all about the beliefs people hold, not just the actions they take.
Elsewhere In Culture
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthropic-ai-safety-transparency-60-minutes
Amodei is saying out loud what many leaders are thinking. AI is advancing in ways that outpace our capacity to understand its second-order effects, and the blackmail scenario inside Anthropic’s tests shows how strange that gap can get. We keep treating AI like a shiny new tool instead of a force multiplier for every habit already alive in our organizations. If a team already moves fast, AI pushes it faster. If accountability is shaky, AI exposes every crack. Leaders talk about disruption as if it is coming from the outside, but AI is a mirror. It scales whatever culture you already have.
The part that aligns with what I see every day is this: the biggest risk is not the technology. It is the human instinct to sprint toward capability without slowing down to examine consequence. A few companies are making decisions that will shape entire industries, and those choices are happening at a pace most organizations cannot match. AI has incredible potential to accelerate scientific progress and transform lives, but only if leaders build a culture where responsibility moves as fast as innovation. When leaders pause long enough to challenge assumptions, create clarity, and reinforce accountability, AI becomes a partner in progress instead of an engine of chaos.
https://apnews.com/article/jobs-hiring-economy-c48fd84dfaa71eee962feb3a88fd8575
The job market may look steady from a distance, but people who are searching feel something completely different. Companies pull applicants through long interview processes, then quietly pull the plug on the role. Recruiters rely on automated responses that do not match the experience candidates just had. Leaders are overwhelmed by shifting interest rates, tariff pressure, stalled government data, and an overall sense that the economy cannot be read with confidence. Instead of choosing a direction, organizations pause, and that pause creates a divide between those who are safely inside and those stuck on the outside trying to break in.
This moment exposes how leadership behaves when uncertainty outweighs courage. Many organizations are delaying decisions because the environment feels unpredictable, and that hesitation sends job seekers into a maze of unanswered applications and vague communication. Companies are protecting their own stability but ignoring the cost of that protection. A healthy labor system depends on leaders who can act even when the conditions are uncomfortable, who are willing to create movement rather than wait for perfect clarity. The organizations that step forward now will gain talent and trust while the ones that continue to stall will find themselves carrying the weight of their own indecision.
Most leaders will enter 2026 reacting. I do not want to react. I want to see what is coming before it arrives. That is why we are bringing leaders together for the Surrender To Lead Summit on January 13.
You will hear from executives who are already shaping the year ahead and you will see how the themes from our upcoming book Surrender To Lead come to life in real decisions and real results.
If you want clarity going into 2026, register now and be in the room where leaders are already looking forward.
Register Now At https://www.surrendertolead.com/summit/