Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. – Publius Syrus

Someone shared this quote recently, and my mind immediately went to the idea of managing in calm seas compared to managing in stormy seas. I’ve often heard the analogy of wartime general / peacetime general when it comes to being a manager in a chaotic dynamic and rapidly changing environment, but I like this one better.

The last several years in tech have been fairly tumultuous - rapid growth followed by rounds of layoffs and reorgs - and many of us have had a front-row seat to the uncertainty, ambiguity, and low morale that comes along with it. This isn’t a challenge unique to my current role, but it’s one I’ve had to learn how to navigate as a manager. So how do I guide my team forward when the seas are stormy?

Give as much context as possible. This is always part of the job, but it’s especially critical in times of chaos and ambiguity. When the waves are choppy and the thunder makes it hard to hear, how you communicate is really important. Be proactive. Communicate more than you think you need to. Say the thing multiple times, in group settings and in 1:1s. Plan ahead for the questions you know your team is likely to have and leave space in the conversation for them to ask more (my experience as a teacher taught me the benefit of those awkward silences). Your job in guiding your team is to reduce ambiguity and add clarity as much as possible, and bringing in context for people

Be transparent, even when you can’t be. Bad news always seems to travel fast. Often, rumours about an upcoming layoff or reorg will start floating around well ahead of the actual event, and the people you manage will come to you with questions. Sometimes you have answers. Sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you can share those answers, and sometimes you can’t. When you don’t have an answer, be willing to admit that you don’t know - offer to try and find out, remember to do it, and report back. When you have information that you can’t share, you have to make a judgement call about how transparent you want to be about that.

Find (or create) stability where you can. If you’re on a ship during a storm, the general rule of thumb is to hunker down on a lower deck near the center where the motion from the waves is less intense - there’s more stability. So what’s the equivalent for this as a manager for my team? Focusing on the roadmap and ensuring that the team has a solid runway of work ahead of them was a big part of bringing in stability for them. You might think it’s silly to focus on projects when people are worried about layoffs, but this was the number one thing that my team consistently asks for when the waters get rough. It’s reassuring to know that there is enough work for them, now and in the quarters ahead, but it also gives them something to focus on (that they can control) instead of the things they’re worried about (which they can’t).

Focus on supporting morale. Stability isn’t just about the work - it’s also about how people feel. There’s often a lot that’s out of my control as a manager during an ongoing storm. But I do have a strong sphere of control around my team, and giving my team more stability helps improve how they feel. I don’t mean in any sort of toxic positivity, “fiddle while the ship fills with water” approach - but I can help people feel better about their day-to-day presence and responsibilities. Take a few minutes during standup to let people chat, and check with folks on a personal level in your 1:1s. If you don’t already have one established, set up a recurring social time for your team to connect with each other about non-work topics. The sea may be stormy, but people are still showing up. Supporting morale helps keep the team moving forward and functioning in spite of the storm.

Build trusting relationships. Maybe this one should have been first, and it definitely could have been a whole separate blog post. Building trust is not a reactive behavior that you can try to establish after the storm has already begun. I hope you started this on your first day and kept it going once the winds started to pick up and the waves got choppy, because building trusting relationships is the foundation for everything else to be successful. You need to have trust from people as individuals, but also from the team as a whole. Trust that you’ll tell them what they need to know. Trust that you’ll be honest with them. Trust that they matter to you. Trust that the work they do matters. Trust that you’re looking out for them. Trust that you know what you’re doing, and you know how to guide them forward.

What are some of the ways you’ve learned to navigate stormy seas as a manager? Share your experiences in the comments!