14-05-2025
Manifest And Mobilize: The New Leadership Job
With the incessant chaos swirling all around us, it's natural to want to bury your head in the sand. ... More But as leaders, it's our job to manifest and mobilize the team, and to direct their anxious energy towards productive action. getty
In this moment, with the incessant chaos swirling all around us, it's natural to want to bury your head in the sand. At the individual level, keeping your head down seems like a pretty good strategy. But at the organization level, where leaders need the team to stay engaged and to move fast as the context changes, the 'turtle' strategy can be disastrous.
A boost of energy and optimism is a good way to get your own head out of the sand. One way I reset is through an annual wellness retreat. Spending a long weekend hiking outdoors, exercising, and listening to wellness experts reorients me to the power that lies within each of us. But since leaders can't feasibly send their entire organization backpacking, they have to find a different way to re-energize and inspire.
We know what doesn't work: Encouraging employees to 'do more with less'
Canned corporate-speak about how 'this too shall pass'
Leaders who hide from their teams because they don't have all the answers
Delegating team health to HR because that's their job
Here's a new idea: viewing your job as a leader to manifest and mobilize the team.
According to the Cambridge Oxford dictionary, manifest means to show something clearly , through signs or actions . If you have a clear picture for what you want the team to be focusing on, you need to paint it just as clearly for them. And if you don't know exactly what you want them to be doing, then it's time for you to figure it out.
For example, if you're in a services business where the economic uncertainty is impacting both you and your customers, you may want your account managers proactively reaching out to customers. If so, then it's essential to provide them with clear messaging and guidance for how to engage.
The more specific and tangible your guidance, the more likely the team will faithfully execute it. Guidance such as 'By the end of next week, I want every single major customer to know how we're navigating the supply chain uncertainties and how we will protect their interests…' helps the team understand the time frame and the messaging. Then provide the bullet points to support the specifics.
To manifest and mobilize, you have to be highly visible and attuned to the state of the organization. And it's critical to keep yourself grounded so that you're not unintentionally sending contradictory signals to your 'We got this' message. One thing that can help, according to the Center for Trauma and Leadership, is to rely on someone outside the organization to be your 'calm brain' to talk things through, so you can be the 'calm brain' for the rest of the team.
As we navigate this BANI – Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible – environment, the role of leaders has never been more important. Do your team the favor of putting them to work to direct their anxious energy towards productive action.
