Leading Well in Unsettled Times

Why leadership today requires more than getting things done

By any measure, these are demanding times to lead.

Organizations are navigating constant change: economic uncertainty, workforce fatigue, hybrid environments, shifting expectations, and growing complexity in how work gets done. In this context, it’s understandable that many leaders default to what feels safest and most controllable: transactional leadership. Tasks, metrics, deadlines, outputs. Fix the problem. Move on.

And yet, while transactional leadership is necessary, it is no longer sufficient.

Leading well today requires something more deliberate: the ability to balance transactional demands with relational leadership, to get work done and strengthen the people and relationships that make sustained performance possible.

This is not a leadership issue confined to one level. Whether you are an aspiring leader, a new manager, a seasoned people leader, or an executive, the challenge is the same:

How do I lead effectively without carrying everything myself—and without losing sight of the humans behind the work?

The Pull Toward Transactional Leadership

When pressure increases, leadership often narrows.

Under stress, many leaders:

• Jump quickly into problem-solving mode
• Take on more responsibility themselves
• Focus on efficiency over understanding
• Address symptoms rather than patterns

These responses are human. They are also reinforced by organizational systems that reward speed, decisiveness, and individual heroics.

Transactional leadership, clear direction, accountability, and execution, it matters. Teams need clarity. Organizations need results. But when leadership becomes only transactional, something important erodes:

• Ownership shifts upward instead of outward
• Accountability becomes compliance
• Conversations stay surface-level
• Teams wait to be told what to do

Over time, leaders become overloaded, teams become dependent, and performance plateaus.

Why Relational Leadership Is No Longer Optional

Relational leadership is not about being “soft.” It is about being effective in complexity.

At its core, relational leadership focuses on:

• How people experience leadership
• How conversations shape behaviour
• How trust, clarity, and emotional awareness influence performance
• How leaders develop others, not just deliver results

In uncertain environments, leaders can no longer rely on control and certainty. They must rely on judgment, awareness, and the quality of their conversations.

This applies at every level:

• Aspiring leaders learning how to influence without authority
• Emerging managers navigating the shift from “doing” to “leading”
• Experienced leaders managing performance, conflict, and change
• Executives shaping culture through how they show up, decide, and engage

Leading well means knowing when to be directive and when to slow down, inquire, and coach.

From Carrying to Coaching

One of the most common leadership patterns we see is leaders carrying too much.

They carry:

• The thinking
• The emotional weight
• The responsibility for outcomes
• The pressure to fix, resolve, and decide

Often, this starts with good intentions. Leaders want to help. They want to protect their teams. They want results.

But over time, this pattern undermines both performance and development.

A coaching-oriented approach to leadership offers an alternative: not by removing accountability, but by redistributing ownership. I often talk about this idea of sharing responsibility with clients, or even pushing responsibility back where it belongs.

Coaching as a leadership skill is about:

• Asking better questions, not just giving answers
• Helping others think through challenges
• Addressing patterns, not just incidents
• Supporting growth alongside performance

This doesn’t mean leaders stop leading. It means they lead differently, with greater intention and awareness.

Leadership as Judgment, Not Just Technique

One of the myths of leadership development is that there is a single “right” style.

In reality, effective leadership is about judgment:

• Knowing when to coach, mentor, manage, or train
• Recognizing when emotions are shaping behaviour
• Understanding how stress changes how people show up
• Interrupting reactive patterns, both our own and others’

In high-pressure environments, leaders often get pulled into habitual responses: fixing, avoiding conflict, over-controlling, or disengaging. Without awareness, these patterns repeat, even when they no longer serve the leader, the team, or the organization.

Leading well requires the ability to pause, reflect, and choose, especially when it would be easier not to.

A Leadership Skill Set for the World We’re In

What today’s context demands is not a rejection of transactional leadership, but a rebalancing.

Leaders need to:

• Deliver results and build capability
• Hold accountability and foster ownership
• Navigate conflict and strengthen relationships
• Act decisively and remain curious

This is true whether you are leading a small team, a department, or an entire organization.

At its best, leadership becomes less about control and more about creating the conditions for others to succeed.

Leading Well Is a Practice

Leading well is not a personality trait or a title. It is a practice that evolves over time and across roles.

It requires:

• Self-awareness
• Emotional intelligence
• Skillful conversations
• The ability to see patterns in behaviour and systems
• Ongoing reflection and application in real work

And perhaps most importantly, it requires SPACE to step out of reaction and into intention.

In a world that constantly pushes leaders to move faster, leading well asks something countercultural: to slow down just enough to lead more effectively.

A Call to Action

If you’re noticing the tension between transactional demands and relational leadership—whether in yourself, your team, or your organization—you’re not alone.

Leading well today is challenging work. It is also deeply meaningful work.

If you’d like to explore a practical, applied leadership development journey that helps leaders build coaching skills, navigate complexity, and strengthen accountability without carrying everything themselves, we invite you to reach out.

Because how we lead, especially in uncertain times matters more than ever.