“Let go of certainty. The opposite isn't uncertainty. It's openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.”
― Tony Schwartz, Author
We seem to be living in a time of runaway stress. At VIM Executive Coaching, we’ve noticed that “uncertainty over things” is a major contributor to that stress. Some get so overloaded with uncertainty, it is almost as though they are spinning around in place. This observation is hardly isolated to our clients.
A Harvard Counseling and Mental Health Services (CAMHS) psychologist, Dr. Rue Wilson who is co-leader of the CAMHS Coping and Grieving Group, recently stated (May 8, 2025):
“We try to feel more in control by imagining different outcomes, but anxiety is such a powerful emotion that our thinking often becomes catastrophic. We get stuck ruminating, overwhelmed by what-ifs, and disconnected from the present—where we actually have the most certainty.”
Ironically, it the present moment that causes the greatest uncertainty even though executives can do nothing about the past and can only imagine the future.
Reconnecting the disconnect
Dr. Wilson suggested eight positive actions when uncertainty in the moment overwhelms and disconnects people from the present moment. The actions are as follows:
- Notice when you're spiraling.
- Breathe.
- Ground in your senses.
- Validate yourself kindly.
- Accept what is.
- Question your thoughts.
- Take a small action.
- Add a little humor.
However, executive leaders, normally swamped with multiple decisions (and often impacting many peers and subordinates with those decisions), may not have the time to sit there, question their thoughts, breathe or crack a joke or two. If the leader is confused, imagine the additional stressors on the many teams and groups they manage.
While reconnecting the disconnect is important for analyzing anything that is stressing out the team, an expanded outlook must be in place for executives, their teams and those they impact in the more fluid workplace situation.
Mindfulness training, and the application of mindfulness gives executive leaders the gift of staying in the present.
VIM Mindfulness Training
Mindfulness training is a tremendous antidote for dealing with multiple executive and team stressors. VIM works with teams to train leaders how to return to the present, to see how anxiety over uncertainty only activates an already bad situation and never helps improve them, to determine what is important and what is not, to accept a negative situation but to not be resigned to the situation, to understand what it means to be compassionate, to appreciate the concept of control and the value of stillness.
To expand on our points from above, a warning sign of a lack of mindfulness in an organization is certainly when we hear executives and teams fixated on bringing multiple past failures or far too many future worries into a conversation. Mindfulness should always guide the team or executive leader to the present moment.
It is important that executive leaders and their teams recognize that “anxiety” begets anxiety. Being anxious only makes things worse and is non-contributory and not a mindful response.
As we stated above, if a situation facing the executive leader or their team is one that is negative, it is best to view the challenge in that present light, but to not be resigned that under no condition can that situation be resolved or improved. It is an important point. Handwringing over a state of affairs does not improve it. Taking deliberate steps to improve the immediate pressures does help.
This leads us to how we guide teams to greater compassion through mindfulness. Compassion is often a misunderstood word. Yes, executive leaders should be mindful of the effects of their decisions on others however, to disregard inward or personal compassion is equally wrong.
And, in all things, no matter the uncertainty over decision making, leaders as well as teams, must find a slice of stillness. Some might believe this stillness to be meditative while others might be satisfied to reach a place of calm.
These days, every place of employment is stress filled however, the doubts and trials do not have to define the outcomes. Mindfulness offers a way to turn uncertainty into resolve to improve the result.