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 begins as a niggle. Nothing you can point to. Just a shift in the air.

What happens next is predictable, even if it is 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 the leader does with the uncertainty, usually without noticing. They argue with it instead of sitting with it. Reach for control where there isn’t any. Lose patience with the people around them.

The team feels the change without necessarily knowing what it is.

They aren’t only experiencing the situation. They’re experiencing the leader’s relationship with it.