Supporting teams during economic uncertainty

What you'll take away

• Your brain is built to expect the worst. Under uncertainty, humans catastrophize by default. That's evolution doing its job, but knowing the bias is there is what lets you catch it and reframe instead of spiraling.
• Stress switches off the part of you that solves problems. When the threat response takes over, the amygdala overrides the prefrontal cortex and reasoning goes quiet. Managers are the first line of defense here: restore some psychological safety and people can think again.
• Burnout shows up long before anyone uses the word. Irritability, going silent in meetings, pulling back, missed deadlines, a sudden streak of cynicism. Watch for it in your team, then check whether you've just described yourself.
• "How are you?" will always get you "Fine." Ask something people can't answer on autopilot, like "how are you handling everything that's going on?" Then listen more than you talk. Two ears, one mouth. Sit with the concern before you start fixing it.
• Name the elephant in the room. Everyone already knows it's there, and pretending otherwise costs you more trust than the honest version ever will. It's fine to say you don't have all the answers, including on job security, and then point the team's energy at what they can actually control.
• Resilience isn't doing it alone. That version is a myth. Real resilience is leaning on other people and bouncing forward, which means coming out of a setback having learned something instead of just getting back to where you started.
• Put your own oxygen mask on first. You can't pour from an empty cup, as Dr. El Hajj put it. Micro-habits do the heavy lifting here: a real break, a walk, ten minutes of quiet before the next thing.
• You're not a therapist, and you don't need to be. Know who on your team is at risk, watch for red flags like hopelessness, point people to professional help and your EAP, make using it feel normal, and always agree on when you'll check in again.
• A mixed team covers its own blind spots. He borrowed James Reason's Swiss Cheese Model to explain it: nobody catches everything, but different mindsets line up so fewer things fall through. He also retold the Tortoise and the Hare, the version where they stop competing and start using what each one is good at.

The one thing to try tonight

Spend five to ten minutes before you sleep going back over the good parts of your day, and give yourself some credit for them. It's a small, deliberate counterweight to a brain that defaults to the negative.

Watch the session

The full recording is above, Q&A included. If you're a manager sitting on news you can't share yet, or a team that's gone quiet in standups, the middle section on check-ins is the part to start with.

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