Over the past month, I’ve been working with teams and boards making on sense making and stewarding difficult decisions.
Contraction.
Scaling back.
Responding to uncertainty and volatility in the external environment.
Many of you may be facing something similar.
One idea kept coming up in those conversations:
Every period of change holds both destruction and creation.
Every ending carries the seed of something new.
As leaders, the work is to hold both.
To be honest about what’s happening.
To not soften the reality or avoid the hard decisions.
And at the same time, to see the broader context.
To recognise that as things end, other things begin.
That balance matters.
Because for many people, endings are not just strategic — they’re personal.
They bring emotion, uncertainty, and loss.
So leadership in these moments isn’t just about making the right call.
It’s about how you hold the moment.
Clear on reality.
Open to possibility.
And human enough to recognise what people are going through.
That’s what creates trust — even in times of change.