Uncertainty has become the defining feature of today’s workplace—whether driven by economic shifts, organizational restructuring, rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), changing client expectations, or the constant re-prioritization that keeps teams on edge. This ambiguity doesn’t just create operational challenges; it erodes focus, fuels burnout, and chips away at trust. Leaders who understand the psychological impact of uncertainty can take intentional steps to create clarity, stability, and connection to reduce its toll.

A recent study helps explain exactly why uncertainty is so psychologically taxing. A new meta-analysis synthesizing 76 fMRI studies shows that nine separate areas of the brain get activated in uncertain environments. Those nine brain areas make up both emotional pathways and cognitive pathways, and when all those areas fire, the brain has much less capacity for things like focus and sound decision-making. In fact, it leaves parts of your brain offline or unavailable, which may help explain why you might feel more brain fog, feel an inability to remember details or retain information, experience hesitancy when making decisions, or keep re-reading details or text. In addition, prolonged uncertainty causes people to scan their environment for safety cues. Employees ask themselves: Does management have a plan in place? Are leaders telling us what’s happening? Do I believe the accuracy of the information I’m being told? When the answer is no, anxiety rises, and, over time, this prolonged state leads to exhaustion.

Change and uncertainty will continue to define work for the foreseeable future, but how leaders shape the narrative will have strong implications for workplace well-being. Here are five practices leaders can deploy:

Practice 1: Be transparent

While there may be limits as to what you can share, take the time to explain the backstory, rationale, or strategy for changes, decisions, and how your teams handle projects. That transparency fuels the perception of control.

Practice 2: Set clear goals

Clarity goes together with transparency. Be clear about deadlines, upcoming changes, or shifts. Your teams should walk into work knowing what’s expected of them and how to get there.

Practice 3: Be predictable

When leaders show up consistently—communicating clearly, following through on commitments, and responding to challenges in steady, grounded ways—they reduce the cognitive load and quiet the anxiety that depletes people’s energy. Predictability doesn’t mean being rigid; it means offering a reliable foundation so teams can focus on problem-solving and collaboration. This steadiness becomes a form of trust, helping people stay engaged, resilient, and able to perform at their best.

Practice 4: Leverage positive emotions

Research shows that positive emotions do much more than help you feel good in the moment. They “broaden and build” your cognitive and emotional resources by expanding your thinking and strengthening your long-term capacity to thrive. Positive emotions essentially unwind the negative impact that uncertainty creates, helping you see more possibilities, think more creatively, and connect more easily with others. Over time, these broadened mindsets “build” enduring psychological, social, and even physical resources—such as resilience, stronger relationships, and improved problem-solving skills.

Acknowledging your team’s strengths, celebrating small wins and success (and then capitalizing on that shared good news with supportive questions), and volunteering together are all great ways to infuse positive emotions into work. In addition, newer research shows that sharing positive workplace experiences with your family or close others boosts both the work and life sides of work-life integration.

Practice 5: Make sure people know they are valued

Humans have a fundamental need to know they matter to others—at work, within their families, and in their broader communities. Mattering is your sense of the difference you make in the world, and it’s composed of two parts: feeling valued (appreciation and recognition) and knowing you add value (achievement). Practicing the skills associated with mattering can elevate leaders, transform teams, and boost well-being in a variety of ways at work, but for purposes of this post, knowing that you are valued quiets an anxious mind.

Creating a culture of significance

Here are some ways you can start to create a culture of significance with your team:

• Seek to understand. Reflect on what portion of your interactions with people involve asking for updates or giving tasks. How much time do you spend showing interest, asking questions, or seeking to understand?
• **Let someone know how you rely on them. **A sentence starter you can use is “If it wasn’t for you…” For example, “If it wasn’t for you, there is no way our leadership retreat would have run as smoothly as it did.”
• **Say a thank you “plus.” **When you say thank you, add a couple of additional sentences that describe the strengths or behaviors that you saw that generated the good outcome. Even though it’s only a sentence or two, phrasing it this way more clearly shows a person the evidence of their impact
• Discuss growth potential and give people stretch assignments (both are indicators of value).

Leaders can’t eliminate uncertainty, but they can lessen the impact by practicing some of the strategies above in an intentional way. The path to a calmer, more confident workplace begins with your next move.