193. From Chaos to Calm: Agility that Inspires Hope

Agility is one of today’s favorite leadership buzzwords, but too often it gets reduced to simply moving faster. 

In this episode, we go beneath the buzzword to explore what true agility really means: the ability to adapt wisely and steadily in the face of uncertainty. 

Drawing on Gallup’s latest global research, we’ll look at why hope is now the number one thing people need from their leaders, and how stability and adaptability can actually fuel that hope. 

You’ll hear how leaders can calm their own stress responses, hold space for multiple futures, and model steadiness that sparks possibility,  even in the middle of change fatigue.

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teri-m-schmidt/

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Transcript

0:00

when you hear the word agility, what comes to mind? Quick pivots, fast decisions moving faster than your competition. Today we're continuing our season theme of going beneath the buzzwords and focusing on agility. And the last few weeks we've gone beneath meaningful work, avoidance of difficult conversations and recognition. Now focusing on agility. If we look back, the truth is agility didn't start as a leadership buzzword back in the early 1980s. It was defined in business simply as the ability to react quickly to rapidly changing circumstances. At first glance, that might sound just like speed, but true agility has never been about moving fast just for the sake of it. Agility has always meant responding wisely and effectively to change with balance, awareness, and direction. Speed without steadiness creates chaos. Agility and contrast is about adapting while keeping your footing and providing clarity for others. And this brings us to a paradox. For years, Gallup's research has showed that the number one thing people wanted from their leaders was stability, but their most recent global study found something even bigger. What most people need from their leaders today is hope that makes sense In our current environment when we're facing disruption from ai, economic volatility, and what many people call change fatigue. People don't just want stability anymore. They want to believe there's a way forward worth striving for. So as leaders, we're challenged to do two things at once, provide stability and adaptability, while also casting a hopeful vision of the future. That's why I really wanted to go beneath the buzzword of agility, because agility isn't about going faster. It is about becoming the kind of leader who can stay grounded in the storm, adapt wisely and spark hope in others when they're weary from change. So let's get into it. I'm Terry Schmidt, executive and leadership Coach at Strong Leaders Serve, where I work with compassionate driven leaders to transform potential into performance. And this is the Strong Leaders Serve Podcast. Okay, so let's look at the buzzword versus reality. So agility often gets tossed around in leadership circles as a kind of catchall for do more faster, but in practice it looks different. Have you ever worked for a leader who tried to embody agility by launching new initiatives or projects? Every time something in your environment changed, or maybe every time they came up with a new idea or saw a shiny new object out there, how did it feel? What impact did it have on your team? You probably experienced some whiplash, and instead of feeling agile, I'm guessing you felt demotivated, exhausted, and insecure. Agility doesn't mean constant change. It means being able to adapt without losing your footing, and that's where stability and agility come together. That's where you can take advantage of the iteration collaboration and responsiveness that agility offers while not burning out your team. So how can you be a leader who embraces and displays agility without causing whiplash and change fatigue? How do you build this steadiness while also sparking hope? Here are three practices and they go much deeper than surface level advice because like with all great leadership practices, the skill development starts by looking inside and figuring out how you as a leader need to grow to be able to effectively execute on that skill. So the first practice going from threat to possibility. When uncertainty hits, our brains are wired to see it as a threat. The amygdala fires up, our stress response kicks in, and suddenly our options feel narrower. That's not a character flaw, and it doesn't just happen to you. It's actually biology. So reframing uncertainty as possibility isn't about snapping your fingers and changing your mind and fixing your mindset. It's about calming your nervous system, so reframing even becomes possible. That might mean pausing to breathe before responding to an anxiety spiking email. Grounding yourself in a value bigger than the stressor or simply naming what your body is experiencing. Only after that steadiness, can you ask, what else could this mean? What else could be possible here? That's the seed of hope. Opening space to imagine possibility where others see only threat. The second practice has to do with scenario thinking. When leaders are stressed, the brain wants certainty. I don't know about you, but I love to have one clear plan. One safe answer, but true agility means holding multiple possibilities at once. Scenario thinking isn't just a strategy tool, it's training your mind to tolerate ambiguity without shutting down. The growth comes from resisting the urge to collapse complexity into one right answer. By sketching three possible futures and walking your team through them, you give stability because you've thought ahead. Agility, because you're not locked into one path. And hope because people can see that no matter what happens, there are ways forward. Forward and finally pausing Before pivoting in our culture, leaders often feel pressured to react immediately. But agility is not reactivity. It's responsiveness. And responsiveness after a pause is often more effective than a quick response. This pause isn't just about waiting. It's about creating space for your nervous system to settle, for your values, to recenter you. And your perspective to widen. That's what makes your pivot clear and thoughtful instead of frantic. As I've said in the past, focus is always faster than frenzy and for your team, that pause communicates stability and models calm. More than that, it signals we don't have to panic. There's hope. We can navigate this together. When leaders create this kind of agility, their teams experience less chaos and more clarity. Innovation flourishes because people aren't afraid of failure. Trust grows because followers know that even when circumstances shift, their leader is a steady anchor. That's the paradox and the opportunity. Stability and agility aren't opposites. They fuel each other. But only when leaders grow the inner capacity to embody both. So as you think about your leadership, let me leave you with a few questions for reflection. Where in your leadership right now are you confusing speed with agility? What are you doing to give your people hope to help them see possibility when they might only feel threat? And what's one practice you could experiment with this week to help you stay grounded when everything around you is shifting? Because remember, agility isn't about going faster. It's about growing deeper so you can provide both the adaptability your organization needs, and the stability your people crave. If you'd like to explore your personal leadership growth that will enable you to experience the benefits of agility while providing stability, I'd love to partner with you. Next week we'll go beneath another buzzword to glean the true meaning and growth necessary for you to take advantage of best practices in your leadership. If you have any buzzwords that you'd like us to explore, just send me a note on LinkedIn. Until next week courageously use your talents to make a way for others to courageously use theirs.