Importance of a Leadership Mindset During Change

Key Takeaways

• Leadership during change depends less on having the perfect strategy and more on maintaining a flexible, open mindset.

• The pressure to always be right limits innovation and disconnects teams from sharing valuable insights.

• Curiosity replaces fear with possibility, helping leaders and teams approach uncertainty with creativity and composure.

• Openness and vulnerability build trust, which in turn fuels resilience when facing unpredictable challenges.

• A mindset grounded in curiosity turns uncertainty into a space for learning, collaboration, and long-term opportunity.

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For leaders today, uncertainty is the new normal; even the best-laid plans can be upended overnight. In these moments, it’s natural to grip tightly to a strategy and try to appear infallible. Yet the true competitive edge lies not in having all the answers, but in having the right mindset. When change hits, how you think and lead matters more than any strategy document on your shelf. In fact, in moments of uncertainty, your mindset as a leader outweighs any strategy. By choosing curiosity and openness over the urge to be right, you create the agility and trust needed to navigate change, delivering results no rigid plan can match.

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“When change hits, how you think and lead matters more than any strategy document on your shelf.”

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The Pressure To Always Be Right Is Holding Your Team Back

The traditional image of a leader is the one with all the answers – the hero who’s always right. Many of us have felt that pressure to project certainty and correctness at all times. But here’s the hard truth: the insistence on always being right often backfires. It can create a culture where team members hold back their ideas, fearing dissent will be punished or dismissed. Over time, this “my way or the highway” approach drains your team’s motivation and innovation.

Research backs this up. Only 3 in 10 employees feel their opinions count at work, meaning far too many people stay silent instead of sharing potentially game-changing insights. When people don’t speak up, leaders miss early warnings and creative solutions. The team might comply with orders, but they won’t truly commit. On the flip side, when employees do feel heard and valued, everything changes. Estimates show that if leaders doubled the number of team members who feel their voice matters (from 3 in 10 to 6 in 10), organizations could see a 12% boost in productivity and 27% lower turnover. The takeaway? The drive to always be “right” is holding your team back from contributing their best, whereas listening and admitting you don’t have all the answers actually propels performance.

I learned this lesson the hard way in my own business. Once, I brushed off my team’s concerns to stick to my plan, and watched it fail spectacularly. That humbling experience made one thing clear: my mindset, not my strategy, had been the limiting factor. It drove home that a leader’s certainty means little if it comes at the cost of the team’s trust and ingenuity.

Leading Change Starts With Your Mindset, Not Your Strategy

When navigating change, it’s tempting to dive straight into action plans and Gantt charts. Planning feels safe, but in a changing environment, even the smartest strategy can become obsolete overnight. That’s why leading change starts with your mindset, not your strategy. Your mental approach sets the tone for how change efforts unfold.

Why do so many transformation initiatives, like reorganizations, turnarounds, and new strategic pivots, fail to deliver? Often it’s not for lack of technical know-how or detailed playbooks, but because the people involved weren’t mentally prepared to adapt. If a CEO clings to a rigid plan and ignores feedback, or if employees see change as something being done to them rather than with them, even a brilliant strategy will sputter. Studies found that not a single company that ignored employee mindsets rated its change effort “extremely successful,” whereas leaders who did address mindsets were four times more likely to consider their transformations successful. In other words, the how matters more than the what.

A leader with a flexible, growth-oriented mindset rallies people around a shared purpose and navigates roadblocks together. Instead of declaring, “Here’s the plan: don’t deviate,” they ask, “How could we think and behave differently to meet this new challenge?” Strategy still has its place, but it should be guided by an open mind that’s tuned in to employee input and external signals. When your mindset is right, your strategy can evolve and breathe as circumstances change. Mindset drives execution. By fostering a culture that’s ready to learn and adjust, you make any strategic plan far more resilient. For any surprise challenge, it’s the leader with mental agility and openness who will find opportunity in the chaos, while a strategy-locked leader will flounder. Get the mindset right, and the right strategy will follow.

Curiosity Turns Pressure Into Possibility

One of the most powerful shifts you can make is moving from the pressure to have all the answers toward the curiosity to explore what’s possible. Uncertainty naturally triggers anxiety. The feeling that everyone expects you, as the leader, to know what to do. But if you reframe that pressure as a signal to get curious instead of defensive, your approach completely changes.

When you lead with curiosity, you start asking questions where you’d normally issue orders. Instead of thinking “I have to be right,” you wonder, “What are we missing?” That simple shift turns a challenge into a puzzle to solve. Suddenly, the unknown isn’t a threat to your ego. it’s an invitation to innovate. By inviting your team’s insights, you’ll often uncover solutions that a know-it-all approach would overlook.

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“Curiosity transforms the weight of needing to be right into the freedom of discovering what’s right.”

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This isn’t just a feel-good notion; research backs it up. Cultivating curiosity helps leaders and employees adapt to uncertain conditions by prompting deeper analysis and more creative solutions. A curious mindset also tends to reduce decision-making mistakes and improve collaboration, because it encourages examining assumptions and inviting diverse perspectives. Just as importantly, when your team sees you leading with questions instead of rushing to judgment, it lowers the collective stress and draws them into problem-solving with you. People become willing to experiment, even if it means risking a mistake, because they know their leader is learning alongside them. In short, curiosity transforms the weight of needing to be right into the freedom of discovering what’s right.

An Open Mindset Builds Trust And Resilience

Embracing curiosity and admitting you don’t have all the answers requires vulnerability. But that willingness to be open with your team is not a weakness. On the contrary, an open mindset builds trust, and with trust comes a more resilient, change-ready team.

Openness Breeds Trust

Would you trust a boss who never admits a mistake, or one who listens and owns up when they’re wrong? For most of us, the answer is obvious. Leaders who show humility and openness create psychological safety. When the boss is transparent about challenges and genuinely welcomes input, people know they won’t be attacked for speaking up or punished for a misstep. Everyone feels safe to contribute, which is the foundation of trust.

Trust is crucial in times of change. Employees will go the extra mile only if they trust their leader. Unfortunately, many workplaces suffer a trust deficit. No surprise given that leaders fixated on being right typically leave little room for honesty. Data highlights this gap, as only 23% of employees strongly agree that they trust their organization’s leaders. Yet when trust is present, the benefits are enormous. In high-trust teams, people are 3× more engaged in their work, and they’re 61% more likely to stay with the company rather than look for other jobs.

I saw the power of openness in my own company. Once I began admitting when I didn’t know something and truly listening to my team’s input, it was a turning point. Suddenly, people started bringing me not just problems but solutions, and we tackled tough issues together. It reinforced that trust isn’t built by slogans or occasional grand gestures – it grows through consistent transparency and follow-through in the day-to-day.

Openness Fuels Resilience

A team that trusts each other and shares openly will be far more resilient when storms hit. In an open culture, problems are raised early, before they blow up into crises, and everyone rallies to fix them. If a plan isn’t working out, a trusting team will adapt instead of falling into finger-pointing or paralysis.

I’ve witnessed teams with open-minded leaders handle major setbacks by calmly regrouping and finding a new path forward. By contrast, in a blame-happy culture, even a minor hiccup can spiral out of control because people hide issues or freeze up. Openness also breeds flexibility: when folks feel valued and safe, they’re more willing to stretch beyond their job descriptions or learn new skills to meet the moment. That kind of agility is exactly what continuous change demands.

When you, as a leader, prioritize openness, you create a “we’re all in this together” ethos that can take a punch and keep moving. A closed, brittle culture, on the other hand, is likely to crack under the pressure of upheaval.

The Right Mindset Turns Uncertainty Into Opportunity

Every disruption or unexpected change has two sides: danger and opportunity. A leader with a rigid, fear-driven outlook sees only the threat, while a curious, open-minded leader actively looks for the opportunity. For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, some businesses froze and waited for a return to “normal.” Others pivoted fast – restaurants started offering meal kits, manufacturers retooled to make new products, and tech firms accelerated remote-work tools. None of them had a perfect playbook for a pandemic (nobody did); what set the successful ones apart was their mindset.

So how do you consistently turn uncertainty into opportunity? It starts with a few key mindset practices:

• Reframe the challenge. Instead of asking “How do we avoid failure?”, ask “What new opportunity could this change present?” That shift keeps you from getting bogged down in fear.
• Empower your team to contribute. Encourage your people to spot emerging needs and bring forward ideas. Folks on the front lines often see opportunities that higher-ups might miss.
• Stay flexible on the how. Be clear about your mission or end goal, but be ready to change the path to get there. In volatile times, your destination can remain the same even while your tactics change along the way.

By following these principles, you won’t just survive unpredictable times;  you’ll thrive. With the right mindset, your team will not only weather the storm but come out ahead, turning what others see as chaos into your competitive advantage.

Common Questions About The Importance Of A Leadership Mindset During Change 

Does focusing on mindset mean strategy isn’t important?

‍Strategy still matters – but it can’t stand alone. Think of strategy as the map and mindset as the compass. In changing conditions, a map may quickly become outdated, but a good compass (an adaptive mindset) will still point you in the right direction. By cultivating the right mindset, you ensure your strategy stays relevant and can pivot when needed. Mindset guides strategy — not the other way around.

How can I demonstrate openness without losing authority?

‍Openness doesn’t mean you stop leading; it means you invite others to contribute. You can be decisive and open at the same time. Frame your decisions as informed by the team’s input – for example, “Here’s what we’ll do and here’s how your feedback helped shape the plan.” And don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” when necessary. Paradoxically, a bit of vulnerability makes you more credible. Your team will respect that you care more about getting it right than about always being right.

What if my team is skeptical of this new approach?

‍It’s understandable if people are wary at first, especially if they’re used to a top-down style. The key is to be consistent and genuine. Keep asking for their ideas, and act on feedback where you can so they see you mean it. You might even acknowledge the shift openly: “I know I haven’t led like this before, but I believe this approach will make us stronger.” As your team sees positive outcomes from this mindset, skeptics will come around. Focus on those who engage, and momentum will build as everyone starts to feel the benefits.