Uncertainty can erode wellbeing among leaders and the wider workforce alike. Nick Smallman and Dan Parry explore how leaders can create cultures that sustain performance through challenging times
In times of uncertainty, businesses need people with an engaged and agile mindset. Company culture, however, can fall short in supporting this objective. The challenges of the 2020s have exposed cultures that are still rooted in 20th-century thinking. Rising levels of uncertainty, sinking consumer sentiment and unpredictable market jitters have brought a new sense of urgency to finding effective ways of working.
Ineffective culture does little to support leaders under pressure. They may become stuck, mired in a wary sense of caution – something approaching paralysis. Or else they might leap into knee-jerk actions that are more panicky than planned. Both can provoke frustration, tension and a toxic atmosphere that leads to inefficiency.
A positive culture that offers meaningful support to everyone across the workforce can help to future-proof your business. However, leaders looking to improve culture to better navigate uncertainty may not know where to start. Begin with this three-step plan.
1. Manage initial reactions to uncertainty
Sidestepping fearful emotion is easier if you have something solid to focus on such as a decision-making framework, perhaps based on critical thinking. This is best developed in advance, rather than improvised in the middle of difficulty. The rest of the workforce will similarly benefit from a positive, forward-thinking mindset.
Of course, preparing for uncertainty isn’t easy. While companies are good at solving puzzles, such as sourcing a new supplier, they are less good at solving mysteries – situations where they face many unknowns and find gaps in the data.
Problems with culture are sometimes mistakenly treated as a puzzle. For example, when disengagement is an issue, it can be tempting to go for a quick-fix answer. But the causes of disengagement are complicated; they can’t be solved through a simplistic wellbeing initiative such as a yoga class or a sleep app.
Deep uncertainty likewise demands a deeper understanding of culture. It helps to take a broad, holistic approach, rather than focusing on a single missing piece of the puzzle.
2. Develop a meaningful approach to wellbeing
Individuals want to feel fulfilled, recognized and valued at work. They need these things because their first thought is not about maintaining the company’s KPIs but, rather, because they want to feel good about themselves. A meaningful sense of wellbeing is an objective in its own right.
Here’s another way of looking at it. Typical wellbeing initiatives (voluntary programs, as opposed to required schemes linked to medical insurance) often only attract a handful of participants. Large corporations spend upwards of $11 million a year on wellbeing programs that may only reach a small number of volunteers – people who might not have been struggling with fatigue in the first place.
How successful are typical wellbeing initiatives? Not very, according to Oxford University researcher William Fleming, who in 2024 reviewed approximately 90 wellbeing programs. Virtually all were ineffective. Mindfulness classes, for example, may be valuable to individuals, but can’t be regarded as a comprehensive business solution to disengagement.
A better alternative is to develop a meaningful and authentic concept of wellbeing that supports everyone across the business. But what does meaningful and authentic wellbeing look like? Researchers have approached this question from many different directions – team interaction, personal fulfillment, fundamental physiological needs, and so on. Yet published papers consistently come back to the same small set of values: trust, respect, psychological safety and belonging. In times of deep uncertainty, those values are more important than ever.
3. Embed wellbeing in culture
The only thing that persistently reaches everyone in the workforce is company culture. A meaningful concept of wellbeing – one that encourages trust, respect, safety and belonging – will only support everyone in the business if it’s embedded in culture. People who feel that they work in an environment that genuinely recognizes and values them are more likely to value the business and step up when the going gets tough.
This concept of culture involves bringing people together in positive collaboration, which is why we call it social wellbeing. Rather than a quick-fix solution, it’s a long-term strategy. Social wellbeing, and the values that support it, can be developed through training programs for managers and employees; it can then be disseminated via culture champions who encourage, for example, empathy and psychological safety, which in turn helps teams develop higher collective intelligence.
When blame and criticism are replaced with trust and respect, people feel they belong to their team and are more likely to step forward, take risks and offer innovative solutions. In that spirit, it might help to scrap annual appraisals – which tend to look back at past mistakes – and instead adopt regular feedback sessions that focus on future ways of working.
A culture that instills a deeper sense of belonging helps to tackle long-term causes of fatigue. It contributes to a stronger sense of fulfillment, and it leads to better engagement and higher productivity. Success in this strategy will prepare the business for all eventualities, helping to make the difference between surviving and thriving in potentially difficult days ahead.
Nick Smallman and Dan Parry are the co-authors of Engaging Teams: How to Use Social Wellbeing to Boost Performance, Retention and Culture.
