Leading in uncertain times is never easy, but as women, we often face unique challenges. Between managing teams, supporting families, and navigating crises, the pressure can feel overwhelming. The good news? Strong leadership isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about showing up with resilience, clarity, and intention.
In this post, I’ll share four key strategies on how to lead in difficult times as a woman so you can make tough decisions, support your team, and inspire confidence—even when times get tough.
Why Leading in Difficult Times Feels Hard
Many women leaders struggle with leadership during uncertainty. Here’s why:
- Feeling pressure to have all the answers.
- Managing stress while supporting others.
- Balancing transparency with maintaining confidence.
If this sounds familiar, know that you’re not alone. The best leaders don’t avoid challenges—they face them with intention.
How to Lead in Difficult Times as a Woman
1. Focus on What You Can Control
Difficult times can feel overwhelming because so much is out of your hands. Instead of trying to fix everything at once, focus on what you can control.
Action Step:
Make a list of the areas where you have direct influence. These might include team communication, morale, or short-term problem-solving.
2. Communicate with Clarity and Honesty
Your team doesn’t expect perfection—they expect honesty. Be transparent about the situation while also providing direction.
Example:
Instead of sugarcoating bad news, try saying:
- Here’s what we know.
- Here’s what we don’t know.
- This is what we’re doing next.
This approach builds trust and keeps your team engaged.
3. Lead with Empathy and Resilience
Tough times affect everyone differently. A strong leader listens, acknowledges challenges, and offers support.
Action Step:
Check in individually with team members or stakeholders. Simply asking, How can I support you right now? can make a huge difference.
4. Prioritize Self-Care and Mindset Shifts
You can’t lead effectively if you’re running on empty. Self-care isn’t selfish—it’s essential for strong leadership.
Ideas to Recharge:
- Set boundaries (e.g., no work emails after 5 PM).
- Schedule time for journaling or meditation.
- Take breaks to reset your mindset.
Even the Energizer Bunny runs out of batteries—make sure you’re recharging yours!
Take the Next Step in Your Leadership Journey
Leading through tough times isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about showing up with intention, resilience, and a clear plan.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, take my Overwhelm Culprit Quiz below. In just 3 minutes, you’ll discover what’s holding you back—and how to move forward.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know how to lead in difficult times as a woman, I challenge you to choose one of these four strategies and apply it to a current challenge. Small, intentional steps will build your confidence and leadership strength over time.
Next week, we’re diving into confidence—and I’ll share a simple formula for taking bold action in leadership. Stay tuned!
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[00:00:00] Being an effective leader isn’t just about leading during the easy times. It’s just as much about how you show up during the difficult times. Uncertainty, setbacks, and crises set back even the most seasoned leaders regardless of their gender.
Leaving many unsure of how to navigate challenges while keeping themselves and their teams motivated.
In today’s episode, we’re going to talk all about how to lead confidently during difficult times. That way you can make tough decisions and inspire resilience in yourself and those around you.
I remember back when I was leading a team during a period where we had zero to no resources for anything that we needed to do.
Morale was low. Uncertainty was [00:01:00] high. And it made every decision feel absolutely impossible. In addition to all of this, while this was going on, I was also navigating some very traumatic things behind the scenes at home. So I not only had to lead a difficult situation at work, but I was also leading a very difficult situation at home. I left an abusive marriage when my son was only five months old and in the process after that had a highly contentious divorce. All during this time frame where I was dealing with such uncertainty in my career with the resources and everything that we had been tasked to trying to take care of. So it was a very trepidatious time in my leadership career and it’s one that I remember vividly.
Since then, I learned that true leadership is what happens in those moments, the most difficult ones.
You very rarely ever become a stronger leader by leading through easy [00:02:00] situations, right? It’s the things that are hard that make us stronger.
The very best leaders aren’t the ones that avoid challenges. They’re the ones that dive straight in and they navigate them with intention as well as resilience.
So a few like common things that I’ve noticed over the years that cause leaders to really struggle when times are tough.
First is feeling pressured to have all of the answers.
Then add to that managing the stress of supporting others as well as having to manage yourself and your own stress. For working women and working moms in particular, this is even more complex because you’re not only navigating the stress for yourself and your team, but a lot of times you’re also managing the stress of your entire household, whether it be your partner and your children.
It’s a lot to carry.
Last but not least, you also find yourself in a predicament when it comes to balancing transparency with maintaining confidence in your team.
Today, we’re going to be diving into four strategies that [00:03:00] I noticed for myself personally helped so much anytime I was navigating a really challenging, difficult situation, whether that be in the office, in my career or at home, when I had to show up as a confident leader for everybody around us.
First is to focus on what you can actually control.
Uncertainty is going to feel overwhelming when you try to fix everything all at once, right? And it’s often difficult to understand and identify what the true priority is.
So what’s really, really helpful during this time is to actually focus your attention on what’s within your control. Because during difficult times, there are going to be so many things that are far beyond your control.
So if this is you right now and you’re navigating a really challenging scenario, I want you to make a list of all the things that you could do currently to influence right now, right? What’s actually within your control?
As an example, some things you might be able to manage would include things like communication or your team’s morale or [00:04:00] even short term problem solving, right? These are things that you have direct ownership of and that’s really where your focus should go.
Next is make sure no matter who it is that you’re talking to, that you’re communicating with clarity and honesty about the situation at hand. Your team and your family, for that matter, if it’s a personal challenge you’re leading through, don’t expect perfection, but they do expect honesty.
Add to that, they also sorely need your direction in the process.
So instead of sugarcoating the situation, be upfront. Say things like, Here’s what we know, here’s what we don’t know, and this is what we’re doing next. That helps people feel confident in not only that you have charge of the situation, but that they are safe and secure as well.
Next you’re going to want to make sure that you’re leading with empathy as well as resilience, right? We, as leaders, we want to lead by example.
Difficult times impact everybody differently.
A strong leader is going to listen to other people, acknowledge their challenges, and then offer support.
So, this might [00:05:00] actually be a really good time for you to check in with everybody individually, any of the stakeholders, and ask them, how can I help support you right now?
Last but not least, it is so, so important that you prioritize your self care as well as practice mindset shift.
I say in my keynotes often that even the Energizer Bunny eventually runs out of batteries. It is up to you to make sure that you are refilling your batteries, not that you’re constantly running on empty.
You can’t lead well if you’re pouring from an empty cup. So prioritize rest, reflection, and overall your own personal growth.
So as an example, make sure that you’re setting non negotiable boundaries for yourself to protect yourself and your energy.
It could be something like unplugging after work and completely being off Slack past five o’clock to even making sure at home that you’re scheduling time to journal and to self reflect. Right? Make sure you’re creating that time and space for you.
Today we talked all about leading as a woman during difficult times. We talked about why it’s hard and I [00:06:00] also shared four strategies I personally have used in the past to help you navigate it with confidence.
So your next step for today is to identify one of the four strategies that I shared with you today and apply it to a situation that you’re currently navigating that’s difficult to help foster and build your leadership skills even further.
And if the situation you’re currently in is completely overwhelming and you’re not sure exactly where to start, I’ve got a tool that could help with that. It’s called my Overwhelm Culprit Quiz and it will help you identify which of five key culprits could be causing your overwhelm today, as well as share with you exactly what you’re going to need to do about it.
Go ahead and find out your overwhelm culprit today by visiting www. corrielo. com / overwhelm culprit and find out in less than three minutes and five simple questions.
Thank you so much for joining me today on The Next Step with Corrie Lo.
Remember being a strong leader isn’t always showing up with all the right answers.
It’s about showing [00:07:00] up with intention, especially during the most difficult times.
Next week, we’re going to be talking about confidence.
I’m going to share a formula for you to take bold action so you can start stepping into leadership without hesitation. So you don’t want to miss it. I’ll see you there.