It was 8:00 a.m. on a Monday, and Mara Torres was sitting across from me, arms folded, tension in her jaw. She let out a breath like she’d been holding it all weekend.
“I just don’t know what to say to them,” she admitted.
Mara, a senior leader in a federal agency, had spent years building a culture of trust, equity, and inclusion in her team. Then, overnight, an executive order wiped out the DEI programs that had just a short time ago been so prized. Her work was not actually about DEI, but her bosses were afraid. Employees were angry. Some were scared. A few were quietly disengaging. And Mara? She felt like the floor had dropped out from under her.

Ever been there? Maybe not in this exact situation, but in that raw, unnerving place where things you relied on—policies, people, structures—shift overnight, leaving you with no clear path forward. That moment when everything in you wants to fight, flee, or freeze?
Mara was teetering on freeze. But leaders don’t get the luxury of staying stuck. They have to move, even when the path ahead is unclear. The question is: How?
Step One: Get Honest About What’s Happening (Inside And Out)
The first thing I told Mara: Stop pretending this doesn’t hurt. Leadership doesn’t mean being unshakable. It means knowing how to steady yourself when things get rough.
When upheaval hits, your first instinct might be to suppress emotions—yours and your team’s. Don’t.
If you’re frustrated, acknowledge it. If your people are grieving the loss of something meaningful, give them space to process. People don’t need you to be a robot. They need you to be real—while still leading.
Try this: Instead of pushing past discomfort, name it. Say, “I know this is unsettling. I feel it too. And we’re going to figure it out together.” That simple act of acknowledgment makes space for trust.
Step Two: Reframe The Narrative
Mara had fallen into a dangerous leadership trap—feeling like her hands were tied. The policy had changed, yes. But her leadership? That was still fully intact.
So we flipped the script. Instead of asking, What have we lost? we asked, What can we still control?
Here’s what she still had:
- The ability to shape team culture
- The authority to set the tone of communication
- The power to keep inclusion alive in daily interactions
- The influence to advocate for her people in new ways
What you focus on expands. Leaders who fixate on what’s been taken from them stay paralyzed. The ones who focus on their next move? They lead.

Step Three: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Mara’s instinct was to wait until she had answers before addressing her team. Classic freeze response. But silence in a crisis breeds fear.
I told her: Talk to them now, even if all you have to say is “I don’t know yet.”
Your team doesn’t need a perfect plan. They need reassurance that you see what’s happening and that you’re committed to navigating it with them. Even if the policy landscape is shifting, your values don’t have to.
A leadership script for times like these:
“I know this change is unsettling. I don’t have all the answers, but here’s what I do know: We will continue to uphold our values. We will keep supporting each other. And I will keep you informed every step of the way.”
Steady leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about being a reliable presence in uncertainty.
Step Four: Create Safety
People need space to express frustration, process fear, and ask tough questions. If they don’t get it from you, they’ll find it somewhere else—often in ways that hurt morale and productivity.
Mara needed to give her team permission to talk. So, she started holding open forums—structured conversations where people could air concerns and brainstorm solutions. The result? Instead of disengaging, her team leaned in. They felt seen. Heard. Supported.
As a leader, your job is to create spaces where hard conversations can happen constructively. This doesn’t mean you have to fix everything. Just listening is often enough.
Step Five: Find The Opportunity Hidden Inside The Challenge

This is the part most people miss: upheaval isn’t just disruption. It’s also an opening.
For Mara, the rollback of formal DEI programs didn’t mean inclusion had to die. It meant it had to evolve.
- Could hiring processes be tweaked to ensure diverse candidate pools without explicit DEI mandates?
- Could mentorship programs be expanded to support underrepresented employees more informally?
- Could managers be trained in inclusive leadership, regardless of policy shifts?
Change forces reinvention. The leaders who thrive are the ones who see possibility where others see roadblocks.
Step Six: Take Care Of Yourself
Let’s be real: Leading through upheaval is exhausting. If you don’t manage your own energy, you’ll burn out.
Mara had been absorbing so much of her team’s stress that she was running on fumes. So, I had her do a basic but critical exercise:
- What drains you? (Over-functioning, lack of boundaries, endless uncertainty)
- What restores you? (Time outside, creative outlets, movement, unplugging from news cycles)
- How can you build more of the latter into your routine?
Resilient leadership starts with a resilient leader. Prioritize yourself so you can show up fully for your team.
Final Thought: You’re Built For This
Here’s what I told Mara as we wrapped our session:

“This isn’t the first time you’ve had to lead through uncertainty. And it won’t be the last. But you’ve done it before, and you’ll do it again. Not because it’s easy. But because you are capable.”
I also guided her through a series of AI-generated prompts to help her craft messaging aligned with her principles, values, and the policy objectives of her agency. By leveraging AI in this way, she was able to find clarity in her communication, ensuring that her team felt both informed and supported despite the uncertainty.
So are you.
The world is unpredictable. Policies will change. Structures will shift. But the essence of leadership—being the steady hand in the storm, the voice of reason amidst the noise, the person who moves forward when everyone else freezes—that remains.
This is what leadership is.
You’re built for it.
Now go lead.