What It Takes to Lead Your Team Through Turbulence
Workers are feeling the destabilizing effects of political and social upheaval. Protect your team with four interconnected approaches to boost resilience.
Otto Dettmer/Ikon Images
A cross-national study found that 80% of employees struggle to concentrate during political crises and social disruption. Interviews with managers and members of their teams revealed that there are interconnected dynamics at play that influence how workers respond. By prioritizing flexibility, permission to experiment, careful communication, and employee feedback, leaders can navigate unrest and strengthen team resilience effectively.
As geopolitical shocks, civil unrest, and viral news cycles unfold in real time, the boundaries between the outside world and the workplace are increasingly porous. Political protests, public demonstrations, and national crises don’t just dominate headlines — they influence the conversations, emotions, and the daily lives of employees. For leaders, this presents a complex mandate: to ensure business continuity while tending to the human impact of upheaval.
The takeaway for leaders? Empathy and adaptability aren’t soft skills; they’re strategic imperatives. There is a growing recognition among leaders that stress triggered by external events is no longer peripheral. In today’s world, it’s a central management challenge. To explore these dynamics, we conducted a cross-national study to understand how leaders respond when external unrest threatens to destabilize the emotional and operational rhythm of their teams.
We interviewed 15 managers — three each from the U.K., France, Chile, South Africa, and Turkey — during periods of intense disruption and learned that sustained turbulence can leave deep psychological and operational footprints within organizations.1 To deepen our understanding of the employee experience, we also engaged with five or six team members in each region. Their reflections revealed just how quickly focus, morale, and psychological safety can erode when the world outside shakes the foundations within.
In select locations, we went a step further, spending up to three days embedded in the workplace to observe team dynamics in real time. A third of participating managers later reported that the presence of external observers helped them identify their own blind spots, better interpret team behavior, and refine their leadership responses during crisis conditions.
Our inquiry focused on four pivotal questions:
- How does exposure to external unrest affect employee focus and productivity?
- What communication strategies can alleviate anxiety and stem the spread of misinformation?
- In what ways do flexible work arrangements and support initiatives help teams build resilience?
- How can leaders strike a balance between safeguarding employee well-being and maintaining business continuity?
What emerged was a clear pattern: External unrest takes a measurable toll on performance. Roughly 80% of employees we spoke with described struggling to stay focused during periods of heightened disruption, and managers reported productivity declines of 15% to 20% during peak episodes of instability. These weren’t isolated experiences but systemic disruptions with ripple effects across teams.
However, we also found evidence of what works.
References
1. These conversations took place at the height of national unrest in five countries: late 2022 in the U.K. and France, amid strikes and political tensions; early 2023 in Chile, during widespread protests; mid-2023 in South Africa, during escalating instability; and throughout 2025 in Turkey, as demonstrations erupted following a series of high-profile arrests.