Lead with Foresight, Not Fear: Stay Steady When the Ground Shifts
What if you could feel more confident in the face of change? Start here.
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
Ever had something go wrong and thought, “I should’ve seen that coming”?
That moment—when reality crashes into your best-laid plans—is familiar to every leader. And it’s not a matter of if uncertainty will show up. It’s when. The leaders who navigate it best aren’t lucky—they’re prepared. They’ve already done the quiet, steady work to build their resilience and foresight.
Spotting the Risk Before It Hits
When I led risk for a large government organisation, I made it a habit to sit with senior leaders and ask two simple but powerful questions:
What’s keeping you up at night?
What are you doing about it now—and what’s your next move?
These weren’t just compliance exercises. They were real conversations about what might get in the way of their goals, and how we could respond before it did. We focused on what was foreseeable and within our control, rather than trying to manage every variable.
Earlier in my career as a commercial lawyer, I saw just how often uncertainty made people hesitate. Clients would come to me with that uneasy fear of something going wrong once the deal was made, but they didn’t always know what to do about it.
In both roles, once we talked through the “what ifs,” mapped out the risks and responses, something shifted. Leaders felt clearer. More in control. There’s a real sense of calm that comes from facing uncertainty head-on—and knowing you’ve got a plan.
That practice—naming the unknown and preparing for it—remains one of the most powerful tools I bring to my coaching to support my clients today.
Foreseeability Fuels Adaptive Stability
Foreseeability doesn’t mean predicting the future—it means having the discipline to pause, scan the horizon, and imagine how things might unfold.
That’s the foundation of adaptive stability: staying centred and composed, even when the unexpected hits. You’re not rigid, and you’re not unmoored. You’re grounded and responsive—able to flex, without losing your footing.
But let’s be honest—sometimes, you simply won’t see it coming. The disruption arrives fast, unannounced, and out of left field. In those moments, your ability to respond well depends less on your plan—and more on your internal state.
When you build flexibility, resilience, composure and trust into the culture, you’re not just preparing for one scenario—you’re preparing for anything.
It’s about strengthening your stable core so that when the unexpected hits, you don’t unravel. And if it does set you back, you’re able to bounce back faster—with perspective, clarity, and calm.
Preparation helps
A 2010 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that people who mentally prepared for potential bad news experienced less emotional distress when those outcomes occurred.
For leaders, this means building mental, emotional and strategic readiness for uncertainty before it happens—so you can act with clarity and calm when it does.
The Cost of Not Preparing
When we don’t create space for foresight, we often find ourselves scrambling in the moment, with real consequences:
Decision paralysis in high-stakes situations
Team burnout from constant reactivity
Loss of trust, reputation or momentum
Missed opportunities because we were too busy putting out fires
In just the past year, many leaders have found themselves navigating:
Sudden team departures and skills shortages
AI advancements reshaping operations and ethical frameworks
Climate events disrupting global supply chains
A rising expectation for businesses to take public stands on complex social issues
The leaders who were better prepared didn’t have all the answers—but they had done enough thinking in advance to respond with confidence and calm.
Questions to Anchor Your Thinking
Building foresight into your leadership doesn’t require a major overhaul. Sometimes, it starts with simply making space to reflect.
Ask yourself:
What’s quietly worrying me that I haven’t made time to plan for?
What would I do if our current plan suddenly became unworkable?
Where in my week or workload is there no room for the unexpected?
How much uncertainty am I actually comfortable with?
Who else in my team needs to be ready—not just me?
If something unexpected landed on your desk tomorrow, would you feel prepared—or caught off guard?
Strengthen Your Core Leadership Muscles
Foresight is most useful when paired with the right inner toolkit. That includes:
A growth mindset: believing you and your team can figure things out
Emotional regulation: managing your state before it manages you
Empathy and compassion: leading people through the unknown with care
Strategic flexibility: knowing when to shift without losing focus
Practising these consistently builds the kind of leadership muscle memory that helps you respond under pressure.
Create a Culture of Psychological Safety
You can’t rehearse uncertainty alone. Create space where your team feels safe to ask “what if?” without fear of being seen as negative or unsure. When people feel safe, they speak up earlier—and that foresight can be gold.
The waves will come. But when you’ve done the inner and outer work of preparation, you’re not bracing for impact. You’re learning to ride the change—with poise, perspective, and a calm, stable core.
What’s one quiet action you can take today to strengthen your leadership for tomorrow’s unknowns?
