Three ways to increase certainty in the workplace

Did you know that feeling uncertain produces a threat response in the brain that can decrease our capacity to think and act critically? In Managing with the Brain in Mind, Neuroleadership expert David Rock explains:

Uncertainty registers (in a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex) as an error, gap, or tension: something that must be corrected before one can feel comfortable again. That is why people crave certainty. Not knowing what will happen next can be profoundly debilitating because it requires extra neural energy. This diminishes memory, undermines performance, and disengages people from the present.

To be clear, uncertainty isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We’ve all experienced the thrill of the unknown. It can feel like butterflies in your stomach at the end of a good first date, nervous excitement on your first day at a new job, and eagerness to see how colleagues react to work you present.

This thrill sensation comes from an increase in the amount of adrenalin and dopamine in our brains, and in healthy amounts it helps us act and stay focused. But when we experience too much uncertainty and that uncertainty stretches over long periods of time, our increased levels of adrenaline and dopamine can trigger us to think and act like we’re under threat.

What does this mean for leaders?

Practically speaking, it means leaders need to think about and reduce uncertainty if we want to set ourselves, our people, and our organizations up for success. This is necessary under normal circumstances, and it’s absolutely critical now in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has increased everyone’s sense of uncertainty. Will someone I love get sick? When will I see my family and friends again? Will I lose my job? Is it safe for my kids to return to their school? The list of questions goes on and on.

The fact that we’re a year into the pandemic with no clear end in sight means high levels of uncertainty – and the effects that has on the brain – are a part of our new normal. Understanding the brain helps explain why team members who are normally quite resilient and agile when faced with ambiguity may be more stressed and anxious and less engaged than usual. During a recent webinar I co-facilitated about the impact of Covid-19 on working women, several people observed that their team members are more likely to challenge ideas and decisions they perceive as risky or unclear. Prior to the pandemic, these same team members showed energy and curiosity for these same types of ideas and decisions. The effects of prolonged uncertainty are one explanation for this.

People’s threshold for uncertainty at work may be lower right now because there’s so much more uncertainty in people’s lives. This is something leaders need to understand and address. Leaders who fail to do so will miss an important opportunity to enhance individual and team performance.

How to create more certainty at work

Here are 3 immediate actions you can take to increase people’s sense of certainty and their capacity to think and act critically. Taking these actions will ensure that you’re addressing some of the most common causes of uncertainty.

1. Manage your negative emotions
2. Establish clear roles and responsibilities, and performance expectations
3. Provide concrete, objective feedback

1. Manage your negative emotions

Navigating a supervisor’s changing moods is mentally and emotionally taxing, and it creates a lot of unnecessary uncertainty. Think about how you express and manage your feelings. When you’re having a bad day, does everyone on your team know it? Do you lash out or withdraw from folks when you’re angry or stressed? Do you often need to apologize to folks for how you said something or reacted? If so, you may be unintentionally creating uncertainty in your office.

Managing negative emotions requires you to recognize what you feel and have strategies to regulate how you express yourself. Coaching can help you build skills in this area, as can reading about and practicing emotional intelligence strategies. Showing a range of emotion is an important aspect of authentic leadership – but your team members shouldn’t feel held hostage by your emotional state, nor should they spend their time and energy navigating your moods.

 2. Establish clear roles and responsibilities, and performance expectations

People are often unclear about the scope of their role, their specific job responsibilities, and the exact things they need to do to be successful in their jobs. Think about your own team. Do people tend to overstep the boundaries of their role? Do people expect others to do work that you see as a part of their area of responsibility? Does people’s work often not meet your expectations? If so, you likely need to clarify roles, responsibilities and/or expectations.

Use time in your next one-on-one meeting to discuss and clarify roles, responsibilities and/or expectations. Be sure to explain why you are using time to do this and how it will benefit your direct report and you to have more clarity around these things. You may also want to share things you’ve observed that indicate confusion or lack of clarity around the person’s role, responsibilities and/or specific performance expectations. If you’ve missed opportunities to provide clarity, be sure to acknowledge and own that mistake. Ask your direct report to talk about how she understands the scope of her role, her responsibilities, and/or certain performance expectations. Use what you hear as an entry-point to correct, clarify, and build  shared understanding.

3. Provide concrete, objective feedback

Ambiguous, subjective feedback – what I refer to as poor-quality feedback – is a surefire way to create uncertainty for your people. Imagine being told “your communication skills need work” or “you need to be more of a team player” or “some people find it hard to work with you.” These real-life feedback examples leave people feeling confused, defensive, and unclear. And most people are left wondering, “What am I supposed to do now?”

Take time to prepare high-quality feedback using the Situation, Behavior, Impact Model from the Center for Creative Leadership. This simple framework will help you craft feedback that is concrete and objective, and which reduces the confusion and uncertainty caused by poor-quality feedback. Check out my earlier post on giving critical feedback for details on how to use the model.

Final thoughts

Uncertainty is inevitable in our personal and professional lives. In small doses, it can help motivate and focus us. In large and prolonged doses, it can undermine our ability to think, act, and engage effectively. Put simply: uncertainty impacts performance.

As leaders, we need to engage with this fact. More specifically, we need to make a conscious effort to create certainty within our teams and avoid doing things that unintentionally create uncertainty. I suggest we start by taking a critical look at how we express our emotions, how we give feedback, and whether our people have a clear understanding of their roles, responsibilities, and performance expectations. Addressing just these three common causes of uncertainty can have a dramatic and positive effect on people’s ability to perform.