Doubt

Clients don't call back. Deals fall through. Deadlines slip. Any one of those has an explanation. Together they start something else. It doesn't announce itself.
It starts as a niggle. Nothing you can point to. Just a shift in the air.

What happens next is predictable, even if it's rarely named. The leader gets tighter. Decisions that were delegated get pulled back. Emails get shorter. Or much longer. People start reading into things.

The problem is what leaders do with it, usually without noticing. They argue with the uncertainty instead of sitting with it. They reach for control where there isn't any. They lose patience with the people around them.

They feel it. They just don't know what it is.

The team isn't experiencing the situation. They're experiencing the leader's relationship with it.