When Leadership Finds You Before You’re Ready: 3 Lessons for Leading Through Fear and Uncertainty

drdcthomas4
Nov 8, 2025
3 min read

Leadership doesn’t always arrive when we plan for it. Sometimes, it shows up before we feel ready — in moments that demand courage before confidence.

When I became president of the Students of African Descent Alliance (SADA) in college, I thought leadership meant planning events and helping students find community.

I never imagined it would mean working with the FBI.

It started quietly. Anonymous letters — threats signed by a white-supremacist group — began showing up around campus. Some were slipped under doors, others mailed to students’ homes.

Overnight, fear replaced familiarity. Students stopped walking across campus alone. Professors looked over their shoulders. And I was a 20-something trying to lead through something that felt bigger than me.

That experience changed how I understood leadership forever.

3 Leadership Lessons That Still Guide My Work

1. Lead with Presence, Not Perfection

When fear spreads, people don’t look for the smartest person in the room — they look for the calm one. Research from Harvard professor Amy Edmondson shows that teams thrive when leaders make them feel safe to speak up, even when things are uncertain. That sense of safety starts with consistency — being steady when everyone else feels shaken.

You don’t have to have every answer. You just have to show up in a way that says, I’m here, and we’ll figure this out together. That kind of presence helps people breathe again. It slows panic. It makes room for clear thinking and hope.

Look-for: In tense moments, your team naturally turns toward you — not because you’ve solved it all, but because your steadiness makes them feel safe.

2. Turn Questions into Courage

When chaos hits, our instinct is to fix. But sometimes courage looks like pausing to ask the right question. During that crisis, mine was simple: “What would make us feel safe walking across campus again?”

Edmondson’s research found that leaders who ask real, open questions create teams that learn faster and work better together. A question is powerful because it signals humility — it tells people their ideas matter and that leadership is shared.

Look-for: When things get messy, your questions spark ideas instead of silence. People think with you, not for you.

3. Build Safety Before Strategy

You can’t build trust on top of fear. Before people can perform, they have to feel safe enough to speak honestly. Edmondson’s studies show that teams with psychological safety outperform others because people aren’t wasting energy hiding mistakes or protecting themselves.

When safety is present, people lean in. They share what they see. They take ownership. That’s when your team stops surviving and starts improving.

Look-for: You hear the hard truths in meetings — and people know it’s safe to tell them. That’s how you know your team feels protected, not policed.

Reflection for Today

Leadership doesn’t begin with a title. It begins in the moments that test your voice before you’re sure you have one.

If you’ve ever led through uncertainty, pause and remember: That moment didn’t just shape your leadership — it revealed it.

Action Step: Ask yourself: “Where might fear still be silencing voices on my team — and what can I do this week to change that?”

Keep going.

Research Note

Inspired by Dr. Amy Edmondson’s work on psychological safety — the belief that people can speak up, share ideas, and take risks without fear of judgment or punishment. Her research shows that steady, curious, and honest leaders create teams that think more clearly, collaborate more deeply, and perform at their best.