Conquering Chaos: 5 Tips to Unlocking Greater Resilience for Leaders and Their Teams

In today’s turbulent work environments, how can leaders stay steady while empowering their teams to thrive? Informed by the 2025 Workplace Options COE Summit, this guide breaks down five practical ways to foster resilience—from within and across your organization:

Tip 1: Cultivate Self-Awareness

 Tip 2: Extend that Awareness Outward (i.e., Emotional Intelligence)

 Tip 3: Communicate 360°

 Tip 4: Choose Collaboration and Coaching over Control and Command

 Tip 5: Be Flexible—Simple as That

In times of uncertainty and volatility, it’s not uncommon for leaders to veer toward one of two extremes: losing so much control that they can no longer provide any sense of order or direction for their teams, or assuming so much control that they stifle the creativity and innovation their organizations need to thrive.

In either case, the missing puzzle pieces are often the same: emotional intelligence, trust, communication, collaboration, flexibility, and a growth mindset. These are the key ingredients that make for a resilient, high-performing workplace. Yet too often—especially in moments of upheaval—leaders overlook these qualities in favor of the false comforts of reactive decision-making, rigid processes, and the command-and-control style they know.

Helping leaders arrive at a place where they can call on the former capabilities instinctively was one of the central aims of the Workplace Options Center for Organizational Effectiveness’ June 2025 summit, Thriving in Uncertainty: Leadership and Wellbeing in Tumultuous Times.

In two thought-provoking sessions led by Donald Thompson, CDE®, Managing Director at the COE, and Rivkah Sherman, ICF-Certified Coach and Project Development Coordinator, leaders gained invaluable insights on how to lead with confidence, clarity, and credibility when the path ahead is unclear—and how to bolster their teams against future disruption by embracing chaos as a natural and necessary part of work.

As Sherman asserted, “True leadership—this ability to navigate the unknown and overcome obstacles as they appear—demands a respect for and a willingness to embrace a certain level of chaos. In providing that, leaders create the space for real creativity and innovation to emerge.”

With that in mind, here are five tips leaders can act on today to thrive amid tomorrow’s disruption:

Tip 1: Cultivate Self-Awareness.

“The first and paramount responsibility of anyone who purports to manage is to manage self: one’s own integrity, character, ethics, knowledge, wisdom, temperament, words, and acts.” 

This and similar maxims from Dee Hock, founder and former CEO of Visa, were at the center of Sherman’s compelling exploration of what it takes to lead through chaos. Guided by Hock’s influential chaordic theory—which posits that there is a middle ground between chaos and control that true, effective leaders find a way to reconcile—Sherman outlined a five-point roadmap for navigating uncertainty in the workplace, starting with self-awareness for leaders.

“Before you can lead anyone else, you must lead yourself,” Sherman explained. “That starts with knowing who you are, what your values are, and how you operate.”

At a time when everything else is in flux, this “North Star,” as Marie Boon-Falleur, Bain & Company Partner, put it in her conversation with Donald Thompson, not only helps leaders deliver the stability their employees seek but enables both to temper their responses to change and uncertainty. By recognizing and deeply understanding their own emotional processes—from their triggers and thought patterns to resulting behaviors—as well as clarifying how they ideally want to respond and which qualities or values they wish to embody, leaders can navigate chaos with greater intentionality and consistency. Such predictability allows teams to reduce their own uncertainty or stress, allowing them to focus instead on how they can adapt and follow in their leader’s footsteps.

As Sherman explained, “We each possess the resistance to change, but the capacity to change, too. Our brains naturally seek familiarity and avoid the unknown. They dislike uncertainty and resist disruption. But we also have this wonderful thing called neuroplasticity, which allows us to adjust our brain’s responses and cope better with uncertainty.”

To find a way out of the storm, leaders must first look within. Once they have a handle on their own stress responses, they can work toward restoring a sense of calm and stability in the workplace, and rebuilding their employees’ confidence, morale, and performance in times of uncertainty.

Tip 2: Extend that Awareness Outward (i.e., Emotional Intelligence)

While self-awareness can be described as the ability to recognize and understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and behaviors—and how they affect oneself—emotional intelligence is thus projecting that ability outward: recognizing how one’s attitudes and actions impact others, understanding the emotions, thoughts, and behaviors of others, and effectively navigating these interpersonal dynamics.

In other words, while self-awareness involves asking questions like, “What am I feeling?” “Why am I feeling this way?” and “How can I respond?” emotional intelligence factors other people into the equation through questions like, “How might my feelings or responses impact others?” “How might others be feeling or responding?” and “How can I respond in a way that respects and supports those around me, and honors both my own and others’ emotional experiences?”

In the context of change or uncertainty, this requires leaders to reflect not only on how any decisions made, actions taken, or insights gathered might impact employees, but critically, on how the communication of such decisions, actions, or insights affects them as well. As Thompson explained:

“Anytime there’s significant change, leaders have more information than their teams, which means they have less stress. So, in order to effectively navigate change as an organization, we have to think through the lens of those that only have parts and pieces of information.

Because if leaders don’t fill in those blanks, they will be filled—but they’ll be filled with fear, uncertainty and doubt. So asking questions like, ‘What do I know that my teams don’t? How might that be impacting them? And how can I address this disparity in what I say or how I communicate?’ becomes essential.

As leaders, we may feel we have enough information to move forward confidently—but we still need to consistently check in with our teams to ensure they have the information, the psychological safety, and the sense of belonging, inclusion, and trust they need to feel the same.”

In terms of how leaders can act on this, Boon-Falleur recommends one-on-one “bear hugs”—“this idea of connecting individually with employees to say, ‘I know this is stressful, but I’m here. I want to talk with you. What questions do you have?’”

“Baking that into the process thoughtfully is what I’ve seen separate organizations that transition successfully from those that really struggle with change management,” she explained.

Ultimately, what this calls on leaders to do, Sherman emphasized, is to accept that employees are going to have strong reactions to change—and to prepare for them, rather than ignore them.

“By acknowledging that it’s okay to feel—and that different people are going to adapt to change at different rhythms,” she explained, “leaders create a more psychologically safe environment where concerns are surfaced and addressed early, instead of fomenting into more formidable obstacles down the line.”

When leaders create space for their own as well as their teams’ emotions, they open the door to more effective problem-solving, clearer communication, deeper trust, and stronger relationships—hallmarks of a thriving, resilient organization.

Tip 3: Communicate 360°

When it comes to putting emotional intelligence into practice, communication is essential. As Thompson indicated, it’s how leaders communicate during times of change that matters just as much—if not more—than what they communicate.

In turbulent times, how can leaders demonstrate that they care? How can they spark innovation and creativity? How can they sustain their employees’ motivation, engagement, and connection to the organization and the work that they do? 

They can start by asking more questions and making fewer statements, Thompson explained.

Asking employees how they’re doing is, of course, one way to demonstrate emotional intelligence and nurture a resilient organization in the face of disruption. But so is asking, “Do you have any ideas?” or “Do you have any concerns or feedback you’d like to share?” 

When leaders make a point to ask employees for help—inviting them to share ideas, raise concerns, offer feedback, and participate in key conversations or decisions—they foster the psychological safety, stability, and trust people need to be vulnerable, take risks, and contribute meaningfully, even amid uncertainty.

As Sherman noted, “Psychological safety doesn’t mean we say yes to everything, but we create an environment where employees can bring their ideas or their observations forward and trust that they’re going to be met with compassion and consideration–even if the answer is no or the concern isn’t shared. This way, no one feels like they have the full weight of something on them.”

What this points to, more broadly, is the need for 360-degree communication. This means moving beyond the traditional top-down model to embrace a style where information flows in all directions, including bottom-up and, crucially, side-to-side.

As Boon-Falleur emphasized, resilient leadership—and by extension, resilient organizations—are characterized by the free flow of information, where not every idea or insight must originate from or be funneled through the top, but can instead circulate across and within teams at all levels, enabling faster, smarter decision-making.

“Information is going to change. There is always going to be new information coming in, but you can’t force everything to make its way up the chain before it makes its way back down,” Boon-Falleur explained. “Otherwise, you are going to move too slow. You’ll become a bottleneck for your team. You need to empower people to act independently and make the right decisions—and that starts with enabling them to communicate with each other, communicate upward, and use their own insights when the time is right to move at speed.”

By engaging in open, two-way communication with employees—and honoring their need for confidence, self-efficacy, and psychological safety during volatile periods—leaders lay the foundation for more adaptive, resilient teams equipped to respond quickly and adeptly to change.

Tip 4: Choose Collaboration and Coaching over Control and Command

A core aspect of attaining that 360-degree communication style is leaning away from commanding and controlling and leaning into collaborating and coaching.

As Thompson argued, leaders cannot expect innovation and creativity from a command-and-control environment; if they want resilient, quick-thinking, autonomous employees, they must focus on empowering—not ruling over—their teams.

“Bain’s research has found that the strongest leadership teams truly believe in collaboration—they create an empowerment culture” Boon-Falleur explained. “They give employees a budget of authority and clarity on strategic priorities—on the customers to pursue and the direction to follow—so that people are positioned to make the call. The greatest leaders are amazing at that.”

“Some leaders will complain, ‘Oh, but my teams don’t know how to make the right decisions,’” she continued. “But that’s because you haven’t positioned them to succeed. You’re still calling all the shots. You haven’t trained them, held them accountable for their decisions, and empowered them to become strong decision-makers.”

One practical way to move toward this empowerment, collaboration culture, she explained, is to be more intentional about the environment leaders create within and through meetings. “It’s important for leaders to send a strong signal that, ‘If we meet, it’s for good reason. It’s a moment for meaningful collaboration. We’re going to have a high-quality discussion, and I’m going to be fully present and ready to listen.’”

“All too often,” she explained, “leaders will ask rhetorical questions when they already have the answers. Their teams see right through that. They instantly know their leaders aren’t really interested in their input. So, asking your teams real, open-ended questions and demonstrating that you are genuinely prepared to listen is a powerful step toward building a culture where people feel trusted to think, contribute, and make decisions.”

As Thompson observed, this approach not only makes for better employees—but stronger leaders, too.

“If you have trusted people within your organization that you can go to, share ideas with, and collaborate with before you act, that allows you to be bolder,” he explained. “It allows you to be more forthright—and faster in your performance—because you’re not acting alone.”

When leaders empower their teams to think and act independently—to work with them and not just for them to solve problems, brainstorm new ideas, or shape a new path forward—they set their organizations up for long-term success in a fast-changing world, free from the constraints of “yes-men” culture and top-down structures that undermine agility.

Tip 5: Be Flexible—Simple as That. 

Ultimately, the key to thriving in a chaos-driven world is embracing the nature of chaos. This means accepting the simple truth that not everything is within one’s control, especially for those in leadership.

As Sherman explain, “Resilience is characterized by focusing on what we can control and understanding what we can’t. After all, you need to relinquish some control to have creativity, innovation, and to allow the talented people that you hired to show up as who they are and do their work unbridled.”

In practice, she said, this means embracing the idea of “emergent strategy,” as explored in activist and author adrienne marie brown’s eponymous book.

“It’s the idea that a requirement to lead amid chaos is to embrace a strategy that’s being built as we’re moving along,” Sherman explained. “The idea of trusting that the right people in the right spaces will come up with what’s needed in that moment.”

“To do this,” she went on, “leaders need to emphasize purpose and vision. So we’re not in total chaos—it’s not anybody at any time talking about anything. Instead, it’s ‘We’re here together, at this time, with these particular people, for this reason. Exactly how we’re going to do this, we don’t know yet, but we all agree on this. This is the solution that we’re looking for.’”

Again, this goes back to the need for psychological safety—creating space for failure, allowing people to share their own ideas or concerns, take risks and try new things, make decisions, and ultimately contribute meaningfully to their team or organization’s mission.

Trying to maintain complete control in today’s era of rapid transformation is like trying to swim against the current: no matter how long a leader—or their organization—can resist, eventually they’ll tire, and the current will carry them onward anyway. Better to learn to move with the flow than fight against it—and that starts with learning how to strategize on the go.

Want to keep exploring what it really means to lead through change?

Click here to watch the full #2025COEWeek session recordings and unlock deeper insights and actionable strategies from Sherman, Thompson, and Boon-Falleur. 

Explore COE Programs for leadership development: https://consulting.workplaceoptions.com/solution/organizational-change-and-restructuring/