“I Don’t Know What to Do Anymore!” Is Your Leadership in Crisis?

Leadership is struggling right now. The pandemic didn’t create the problems. It amplified the ones that were already there. It amplified them so much that many leaders no longer know how to turn things around.

The three biggest problems:

• Our companies have lost their appeal, and open positions are getting harder and harder to fill.
• The pandemic and the lockdowns triggered a crisis of meaning. Many employees quit their jobs to change direction.
• We all had to push ourselves hard just to get through. Now we don’t know how to motivate our teams to give “even more” when we all feel we’ve already given everything.

The result is a serious leadership crisis. Here are three reasons why:

• The pandemic was a marathon. But the finish line turned out to be the starting line of an Ironman. The economic crisis looks set to be worse than the health crisis. The cure may be worse than the disease. So how do you keep your company alive without closing its doors? And will you be up to the job?
• How do you lead your teams through the storm without sinking the ship? How do you engage them, motivate them, and make them want to stay? Are you a strong enough leader to bring them together when times are hard?
• And how will you hold up? You’re running on empty, and burnout is circling. You’re afraid you could break at any moment, but you don’t have a choice. So what do you do? Will your body hold out?

Behind all these challenges lies a deeper leadership crisis. As if things weren’t hard enough already…

We believe a leadership crisis is something every leader and executive will face in times like these. And it probably won’t happen just once. It will come back as circumstances shift and the economy changes. We haven’t seen the last of the surprises…

Here are a few recommendations to help you get through this tough stretch as quickly as possible.

Want to go deeper? Listen to episode 43 of the podcast Un Accent sur le Nouveau Leadership: how to handle a leadership crisis. [internal link – ANL 43]

What is a leadership crisis, and how do you recognize one?

A leadership crisis is not the same thing as a hard problem.

A leadership crisis is a systemic problem. It affects the leader as much as the environment around them. It shakes your foundations and calls everything you took for granted into question. You lose your bearings. You start to question your place, your impact, your resources, and your responsibilities. And it always comes with a major change, whether you chose it or not.

In a leadership crisis, you come face to face with your blind spots and your vulnerabilities. You also face the hidden balance sheet of your wins and your failures.

In plain English: nothing is working, and you have no idea how to get out of it!

That’s when a whole crowd of troublemakers and spoilers shows up to the party. They’re what turns a problem into a real crisis. But let’s take this one step at a time…

A leadership crisis can come from two places:

• An external source. People issues: relationships, motivation, conflict, engagement, performance, and so on.
• Group dynamics: team spirit, cohesion, collaboration, cooperation, and so on.
• The system: government policy, regulations, company culture, business model, paradigm shifts, and so on.
• An internal source. Your state of mind: discouragement, loss of meaning, being fed up, and so on.
• Exhaustion: overload, chronic fatigue, having too much on your plate, and so on.
• Doubt: your inner saboteur, impostor syndrome, not seeing clearly, reaching the limits of your skills, and so on.

Both lead you to question yourself. If you don’t resolve them quickly, the crisis gets deeper. A long external crisis will always turn into an internal one. And the reverse is true too.

A leader’s life is one crisis after another. We all build skills to handle them. But when an internal crisis hits hard, there are traps that can lock you into a vicious cycle.

Here they are.

Crisis and leadership: how a leader spirals down

It all starts with a trigger. That’s the event that tips the system into trouble. Until then, everything was “fine.”

Then the indicators start slipping, one after another. How badly and how fast they slip determines how serious the crisis gets.

For every company, without exception, the pandemic was a tidal wave. It led to crisis after crisis. Some companies saw their business collapse. Others happened to be in the right place at the right time and saw demand explode.

Then came the broader economic crisis. Staffing problems. Supply chain disruptions. Inflation. And, in France, the payback of government-backed loans (PGE).

The trigger was external: COVID-19 and how the authorities handled it. Then came a cascade of other external crises: supplier relationships, employee well-being, jobs that stay open forever, supply shortages, soaring prices, and more.

The game has changed so much that many leaders are lost. They’re out of resources and out of ideas. So on the way down, they fall into the first trap: “doing things the way we used to.”

You tell yourself this will pass and everything will go back to “the way it was.” You want, with all your heart, to return to the stability you had before the trigger. And you do everything you can to make that happen.

Here’s the catch. If you’re in this situation, the system was already broken “before.” That’s why it gave way! Going back to “the way it was” will only land you in a setting already riddled with the same hidden problems.

Whatever problem you face, your first natural reaction is to wish things would go back to “the way they were.” But in every case, “before” is a time when your problem already existed. You just didn’t see it. Going back there won’t stop it from happening again. It’s an illusion.

That’s the first mistake to avoid in a leadership crisis: wanting everything to go back to “the way it was.” In other words, going back to a time when everything seemed “fine,” and staying stuck in the past.

Think again.

If things aren’t working today, they weren’t working before either. Try to optimize a broken system and all you’ll get is a broken system that still performs poorly… just a little less poorly. The past, and all its “things were better back then,” is not the answer.

Leadership and emotions: weathering emotional storms in a crisis

A leadership crisis always hits you in the gut. And when it does, emotions are never far behind. They’re rarely the pleasant kind.

Emotion is the most powerful source of energy we have. Channel it poorly and it can do serious damage.

Emotional management and emotional intelligence are big topics in their own right. We won’t cover them here. We’ll just focus on how emotions affect a leadership crisis.

When emotions take over, they team up with an overactive mind. Together, they tell you endless stories. Most of those stories are pure fiction. In 99.9% of cases, they will never happen.

That’s where a lot of fears and worst-case scenarios hide. You picture the end of the world with alarming creativity. Dread, anxiety, and everything that comes with them crash the party. They drain your ability to deal with the situation.

It’s also where your inner complainer hides. The one who keeps whining and feeling sorry for themselves. That’s victim behavior: waiting for a justice that will never show up on its own.

It’s also where a lot of avoidance begins. It’s too much, so you check out. You turn your back on the problem. Not to forget it, because you’re too practical for that, but to get it off your back for a moment. Procrastination and denial join the party and make things worse.

In a leadership crisis, your emotions are your enemy. Especially when they get too strong. Even if you’ve worked hard on your emotional intelligence, even if you know how to manage your emotions under pressure, there’s always a threshold. Past that point, they will be stronger than you. So what do you do?

Just one thing: stop listening to them. And don’t put words in my mouth. I’m not talking about taking the humanity out of leadership. I’m saying this: when you’re in crisis, when emotions take over, when the knot in your stomach, the acute stress, and the mental overload threaten to swamp you, there’s only one way through without going under. Stop listening to your emotions and to all the horror stories they tell you.

For that, only measurable facts and hard data will put things back in perspective, and give you back your resources. The cold reality of what can’t be avoided. Objective information. But before you get there, two more traps stand between you and that solution. And they’re big ones!

Leading through hard times: lying to yourself is your worst enemy

The biggest trap of all: lying to yourself.

A lot of things come into play here. But the most important ones involve how you see yourself, your role, and your image.

Ego and pride join the party and complicate things. They want to protect your identity, your sense of who you are. So they work hard to hide your mistakes, your weaknesses, and your vulnerabilities. How? By telling you stories full of lies. Some of those stories may even be true. They’re still lies. Because what makes a story a lie isn’t its content. It’s the distraction it creates.

Here’s an example. You refuse to accept a situation, because accepting it would mean you’re not the great leader you think you are. Accepting it could also feel like admitting weakness. It would mean you’ve lost control of the situation or run out of resources. Those are just subjective interpretations. But your identity can’t handle them. So you lie to yourself. You downplay the problem. You refuse to see it. You procrastinate. You make excuses. You dig into your certainties. Or you blame other people. You have a thousand reasons to explain the situation and a thousand stories to prove you’re right. But once you’ve worn yourself out telling them, what’s left? The same problem, made worse by all the time you wasted lying to yourself. The truth is simple: you have a problem that’s bigger than you. Period. That’s why you’re in crisis.

What makes a story a lie isn’t its content. It’s the distraction it creates.

When you refuse to accept the problem as it is, coolly and without interpretation, you shut yourself off from the solutions it demands.

The difference between leaders who pull through and leaders who get stuck isn’t intelligence. It’s how many resources they waste along the way.

But that’s not all. Beyond how you see yourself, your role, and your image, playing the victim also plays a big part…

Feeling like your hands are tied is awful. It creates a sense of injustice, as if the sky just fell on you. Victim mode kicks in the moment you start complaining. You tell yourself it’s not fair: “Why me?” That question is the other sign you’ve fallen into the trap. Someone asks how you’re doing, and you launch into a long list of excuses to explain what’s happening to you. You become the person who answers every “How are you?” with a sob story. Nothing is going right. The universe is out to get you. Once again, a thousand false excuses to earn sympathy and to accept that you won’t get out of this.

I know this is hard to hear. But you don’t have a choice. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a good leader or not. It doesn’t matter whether what’s happening to you is fair or not. The truth is that you have a problem. It’s in your hands. And it’s up to you to solve it.

Period.

If you keep chewing on those “excuses,” justified or not, you’re doomed to relive this nightmare over and over. Garrett J. White, founder of the Wake Up Warrior movement, calls it a “karmic cul-de-sac.”

When leadership hits a karmic cul-de-sac

It’s an endless loop. Avoid it like the plague!

A trigger sends you spiraling down. That’s where your problems begin:

• You fall into the traps of emotion, ego, and victimhood.
• You tell yourself stories to convince yourself that none of this is your fault.
• You turn your back on reality. Sometimes you even numb yourself with distractions of every kind: social media, nights out, video games. When things get really bad, it can be sleeping pills, alcohol, drugs, or other substances.
• And you stay stuck, because all you want is for everything to go back to “the way it was.” You stay stuck in the past, looking only in the rearview mirror. You try to fix a system that doesn’t work, instead of building a new one that works differently.

Your future is uncertain, sure. But it’s in front of you, and you keep staring behind you. That crushing nostalgia dooms you to repeat the same mistakes. Nothing changes, because you’ve locked yourself in that endless loop, that “karmic cul-de-sac.” A vicious cycle with no fresh air.

Getting out of the crisis: the keys to resilient leadership

First, stop lying to yourself:

• You’re up to your neck in mud. It doesn’t matter where it came from. Acknowledge it. Then accept that it’s there, about to swallow you. Fair or not, you’re the one about to drown in it. Accepting that is the first step to getting out.
• Maybe it’s unfair. But that’s how it is. Set fairness aside and accept that it landed on you. There’s no point dividing up responsibility or pinning the blame on someone else. You’re the one with the problem. Who did what and why? Who cares! The only thing that matters is getting out.

Next, you’ll need to:

• Stop listening to your emotions and the endless rumination they fuel. As soon as your mind starts racing, go back to cool, practical thinking. Look only at the facts: concrete, measurable information. Nothing beats the cold clarity of numbers. Revenue down 15%? Margins down 30%? Fine. Now what? The only thinking that counts is thinking that moves those numbers. Pure quantitative. Any “qualitative” musing can send you off track. You’re in survival mode. Results matter, not style points! Facts, facts, facts. Numbers, numbers, numbers. That’s all that counts. Not how you interpret them! Got a “qualitative” problem? Find a quantitative metric to track it. Say your customers are unhappy with your service (qualitative). Define actions to boost satisfaction, and orders, in the very short term. Track how many of those actions you take. Then measure the impact on sales. Prioritize the actions with the highest conversion rate. You think your customers are spoiled, unreasonable, or taking advantage? Who cares. The numbers speak for themselves: revenue is down, and so is customer satisfaction. Period. Once you’re out of the woods, you can fine-tune the qualitative side. Not before.
• Imagine new possibilities. Nothing will be “the way it was.” So ask yourself: “What do I need to change so that nothing is the way it was AND the problems I have today never come back?” You’ve just accepted change. You’ve just agreed to reinvent yourself. You’ve just turned toward the future. Tomorrow will never be “the way it was” again. You’re looking ahead to imagine and build something new. Getting out of a crisis forces you to be creative. Crises are often when change happens with the least friction, because everyone agrees that “something” has to be done. When things are going well, change always creates friction. Your teams, your partners, and your stakeholders push back: “Why change if everything’s fine?” In a crisis, everyone’s on board. That’s your opportunity. Now is the time to change, so nothing is ever “the way it was” again.
• Put new processes in writing. Change has to be much more than a one-time fix to a problem. It has to lead to a new company culture. What is that culture? What will your company look like once you’re through this crisis? That vision should guide every step you take. That tomorrow exists, and it’s up to you to build it.

You’ve become the leader you wanted to be again. 100% focused on solutions. 100% focused on leading a group of people to success. 0% focused on your fears and the stories they tell you.

Once you’re out of the crisis, there will be time to sort out who was responsible for what. In the middle of the crisis, that’s a luxury you can’t afford.

But be warned. If you put all this into practice, get ready to accept one thing. The biggest share of responsibility in this whole story is yours, because you let things get this far. That’s part of facing the truth, too.

Jocko Willink, a former Navy SEAL who became one of America’s best-known voices on leadership, calls it “extreme ownership.” No matter how big the problem is or where it came from, as the leader, you own it. All of it.

But that’s also how you recognize your own strength.

And you are strong. These truths may shake you. They may knock you off balance. But afterward, they’re exactly what will help you get your power back. This is where success begins.

And when the going gets tough, remember this: the greatest successes are born in the hardest conditions.

A leadership crisis is the first stage of the “hero’s journey.” Once you’re through it, it’s up to you to write the rest of your quest. Let the adventure begin!

Key takeaways

• The pandemic and the economic crisis that followed mean we’ll all have to go through serious leadership crises.
• Several traps can lock you into a vicious cycle and make it harder to get out of the crisis.
• The “karmic cul-de-sac” is an endless loop driven by several factors: wanting everything to go back to “the way it was,” losing touch with reality, the pull of emotions and intrusive thoughts, playing the victim, ego, and the problem’s impact on your self-image.
• To get out of a leadership crisis, you have to “stop looking back” and “start looking ahead.” Rely on the cool, practical clarity of the numbers. Stop telling yourself stories, and start taking action.

Originally published in French on Konxus Média ↗