Maggie Pearce is Impact's Global Practice Lead. In this article she explores how to stay responsive when the ground is moving.
It's not knowing, it's noticing
Leadership today often means operating in uncertainty. You’re an experienced leader - you have the skills, the intent is clear - and yet things aren’t moving the way they used to. Clarity is harder to achieve, decisions are agreed but don’t quite translate into action, and progress feels less secure than it once did. It can leave you wondering whether you’re missing something, or whether the work itself has changed.
Why leadership in uncertain environments has changed
What’s easy to miss is that the context itself keeps moving. The environments leaders are operating in - markets, teams, technology, expectations - move more frequently than our familiar leadership habits were designed for. In this kind of terrain, responsiveness is the real work. Leadership becomes less about having the right answer and more about noticing what’s emerging.
This reframing matters because it removes an unhelpful pressure: the expectation that if you’re capable, you should know. In a moving context, certainty is a shrinking asset. What grows in value is the ability to notice what’s shifting and adjust how you respond.
Why traditional leadership behaviours stop working
Many leadership behaviours are taught and celebrated, as if they travel well everywhere. We learn to communicate clearly, show empathy, create alignment, drive decisions. These are good behaviours. But the same behaviour has different effects in different situations.
- In a complicated, largely predictable situation, “clear communication” might mean providing structure and answers. In a complex, emerging situation, it might mean asking better questions, holding uncertainty, and naming trade‑offs.
- Empathy can build trust when people need to be heard; it can blur boundaries or stall action when a system needs stabilising and direction.
The behaviour hasn’t become wrong; the moment has changed. Treating any leadership behaviour as universally helpful creates a quiet mismatch that shows up as friction, delay, or stalled progress.
It’s less about the ‘right’ behaviour, and more about what’s right for the moment
This is the heart of it. Leadership isn’t the performance of fixed strengths. It’s an ongoing choice of fit. What helps in one moment can hinder in the next. When we hold behaviours as “right” in themselves, we risk pushing harder at exactly the point where a small adjustment would serve better.
This is often why decisions are agreed yet stall in implementation. The issue isn’t the decision or the intent - it’s the mismatch between how we’re responding and what the situation now requires. We continue communicating, aligning, empathising, or deciding in familiar ways, expecting familiar effects - and the system quietly refuses to move.
Why noticing is a critical leadership skill
So what enables responsiveness without piling on pressure? Noticing. Noticing isn’t a luxury, an indulgence, or a call for long pauses in busy lives. It’s a brief, intentional shift of attention that helps you stay in contact with what’s changing while you continue to lead. It involves being:
- Outwardly alert: noticing what’s actually different in the situation (signals, energy, stability, readiness).
- Inwardly aware: noticing how you’re currently responding (pace, tone, stance, default moves).
A single, practical prompt can help leaders pivot in the moments that matter:
What is this situation asking for now?
This question does quiet, powerful work. It assumes movement, blocks the urge to justify, and connects situation to behaviour without self‑critique. It doesn’t ask you to stop, step away, or find the answer; it invites a micro‑adjustment while you keep leading.
Bringing the idea to life
Consider a few recognisable moments:
- Clarity vs meaning: You add more role clarity, but the real issue is loss of shared meaning. The situation is asking for a narrative about why this work matters now, not tighter job descriptions.
- Process vs trust: You tighten processes to improve reliability, but hesitation persists because the issue is trust. The situation is asking for visible commitments, follow‑through, and repaired relationships - not more checkpoints.
- Speed vs stability: You accelerate decisions to create momentum, but volatility increases. The situation is asking for a short, stabilising pause - small steps that reduce turbulence - before you speed up again.
In each case, the familiar behaviour isn’t wrong; it’s simply mis‑fitted to the moment. The noticing prompt creates just enough space to re‑choose your move.
Practical ways to build responsive leadership skills
You don’t need new frameworks, a long list of skills, or more time than you have. A few small practices can make responsiveness realistic:
- Name the terrain, briefly. When you feel diminishing returns, say aloud (to yourself or your team): “Something’s shifted.” That simple sentence legitimises adjustment.
- Use the prompt in motion. Before you push harder, ask: “What is this situation asking for now?” If a different answer shows up, test a small change - tone, sequence, pace, audience - rather than a big reset.
- Prefer micro‑moves to major pivots. In moving contexts, small, reversible adjustments beat sweeping changes. You learn more, faster, with less risk.
- Hold responsibility without blame. If a familiar behaviour stops helping, it’s information, not a verdict. Treat it as data for your next move, not a judgment on your capability.
Why this reduces pressure (and increases impact)
The most relieving part of this stance is that it draws on your experience. You don’t discard your strengths; you re‑fit them. You don’t need certainty to lead; you need contact with what’s changing. And you don’t need to prove you know; you need to keep noticing and adjusting. When leaders adopt this mindset, three things tend to happen:
- Momentum returns in more grounded, sustainable ways.
- Implementation improves because your actions meet the situation where it is.
- Teams feel safer, not because leaders are softer, but because leaders are attending to what’s actually happening.
Key takeaway: responsive leadership
If leadership feels harder, it’s not because you’ve lost your touch. The ground is moving. In that reality, responsiveness is the work. And responsiveness doesn’t require perfect diagnosis or heroic certainty. It asks for one, human question, asked often enough to keep you in touch with a changing world:
What is this situation asking for now?
Not knowing is not a deficit - it’s the space where noticing does its best work.