Trade wars, global conflicts, economic turmoil — how can you stay calm and focused on your goals during times of uncertainty? Fight overwhelm with expert advice. Tackling leadership, business strategy, finance, wellness, and more, your survival toolkit awaits below.
Business Growth and Strategy
In today’s volatile marketplace, business leaders face the dual challenge of maintaining strategic clarity while adapting to rapidly shifting conditions that threaten long-term growth initiatives.
One of the world’s foremost business futurists, Doug Stephens brings invaluable foresight to this conversation as someone who has made a career of decoding disruption into competitive advantage. Here’s what he recommends business leaders focus on now to keep their organizations on track amidst shifting economic landscapes and unprecedented uncertainty.
Resist Focusing Inward, Double-Down on Looking Outward
Doug Stephens
Business Futurist | Retail Expert
When caught in circumstances of extreme disruption or crisis, our natural tendency as humans is to focus on our survival. Our instinctive fight or flight response causes tunnel vision, where every thought and action becomes solely dedicated to self-preservation. The human brain has evolved through natural selection to become supremely capable of warding off existential crises by reducing threats and promoting our own subsistence.
Businesses, of course, are simply collections of individuals. As a result, the natural reaction among companies in times of crisis is to behave in an identical, self-interested fashion. Businesses become inwardly focused on their own needs. The need for sales, profits, expense reductions, headcount cuts, hiring freezes, and other such things tend to be the first reflexive organizational responses.
Winning organizations, however, consciously defy that instinct. They resist the reflex to focus inward and instead double-down on looking outward. They work harder to understand the feelings and needs of their customers and become even more finely tuned to meeting those needs. They dig more deeply into the behavioural changes that the crisis is prompting and innovate to accommodate those new consumer behaviours. Rather than hunkering down, they lift their heads up to see beyond the crisis to the opportunities that may sit on the other side and tool up to meet them. As competitors retreat for safety, they forge ahead to new levels of competitive advantage.
Now is not the time to obsess over how your organization is doing. It’s time to ask how your customers are doing. As long as you understand the answer to that question better than your competitors, your survival is guaranteed.
Meet More Expert Voices
Our roster of business management and strategy speakers draw on a wealth of experience to help business leaders confidently navigate emerging challenges, often customizing their insights to specific industry needs and organizational goals.
Shawn Kanungo
Strategy in a World of Disruption
Amanda Lang
Acclaimed Business Journalist
Ron Tite
Purpose-Driven Leadership and Marketing Expert
Leading Teams Through Uncertainty
Leaders navigating today’s unpredictable landscape face the complex challenge of maintaining team morale and productivity while providing clear direction amid constantly shifting priorities and external pressures.
For over two decades, Tim Arnold has helped leaders manage complexity and deliver results. He equips audiences with powerful tools that help them leverage healthy tension in their efforts to pursue both profit and purpose. Here’s what he recommends to help leaders successfully steer their teams through ambiguity.
Adopt a Both/And Approach to Short- and Long-Term Goals
Tim Arnold
Leadership Development and Teambuilding Expert
In today’s climate of trade wars, international conflicts, and economic uncertainty, leaders like you are grappling with a crucial question: How do we lead our teams through uncertainty?
Drawing from key concepts in my recent book, Leading Change, one powerful strategy for navigating today’s uncertain and uncharted waters is to keep a short-term AND long-term focus.
The COVID-19 pandemic offers valuable lessons on managing the tension between immediate threats and future vision:
- A short-term bias: Some organizations quickly adapted their operations, seizing new revenue streams and capitalizing on government funding. However, many now struggle with unsustainable business models and confused customer perceptions.
- A long-term bias: Others remained steadfast, believing the crisis would pass quickly. This approach led to missed opportunities and, in some cases, “Out of Business” signs.
- The healthy-tension approach: The most successful organizations embraced a “both/and” strategy, combining short-term agility with long-term vision. They pivoted and innovated while keeping their mission, vision, and values at the forefront, ensuring that every short-term decision aligned with long-term non-negotiables.
By taking a both/and approach between short-term and long-term goals, you can empower your team to not just survive but thrive in the face of uncertainty.
Meet More Expert Voices
Our roster of teambuilding experts specializes in fostering cohesion, cultivating adaptability, and developing the agile, resilient teams needed to thrive amid constant change.
Liane Davey
Expert on Building Effective Teams and Increasing Leadership Effectiveness
Shane Feldman
Expert on Connection, Team Building, and Leadership | Serial Entrepreneur
Hamza Khan
Future of Work and People-First Leadership Expert | Bestselling Author
Mental Health and Wellness in Challenging Times
Amid constant disruption and uncertainty, safeguarding our mental health becomes a critical priority that requires deliberate, intentional practices to prevent burnout and maintain psychological resilience.
Jhanelle Peters, a Registered Psychotherapist and former mental health clinician for the Toronto Raptors, specializes in helping high performers maintain well-being amid continuous pressure and change. With experience supporting both elite athletes and corporate professionals alike, here’s her advice to reframe stress from a hindrance to a helper.
Reframe Your Relationship with Stress
Jhanelle Peters
Mental Health and Workplace Wellness Expert
Stress is often viewed as a problem, challenge, or fear, but this perception is largely shaped by how we interpret it. Stress is a natural signal from our body, alerting us to be prepared. How we respond to these signals affects our mindset. For example, an athlete at the starting line may feel stress, but through mindfulness, they can interpret it as energy, not fear, which helps them perform better.
We have the power to reframe stress and see it as a positive alert or performance enhancer rather than a hindrance. While stress is inevitable, learning how we interpret it can reduce its negative impact and help us manage it more effectively. Therefore, the next time you feel that knot in your belly, the sweat on your palms, or those catastrophic thoughts, try asking yourself these questions:
- What is my body trying to tell me? (Use a neutral or positive way of thinking)
- How have I prepared my body and mind for what is in front me?
- When or what helps this feeling subside? (Sometimes, knowing it will not last forever helps calm our body and mind).
You got this!
Meet More Expert Voices
Our mental health speakers and wellness experts equip audiences with practical strategies to maintain and preserve their well-being and performance even during the most challenging circumstances.
Dr. Susan Biali Haas
Expert in Stress Resilience, Leadership, and Sustainable High Performance
Jessica Holmes
Celebrated Comedian | Author | Mental Health Advocate
Anthony McLean
Culture | Mental Health | Storytelling for Leaders
Performance Under Pressure
The relentless pace of today’s workplace combined with constant uncertainty creates unprecedented performance challenges, testing our ability to maintain focus, energy, and effectiveness amid continuous disruption.
As one of the leading performance consultants in the field, Dr. Kimberley Amirault-Ryan has coached and trained some of the world’s top athletes and teams. She translates elite athletic mental strategies to the business world, helping leaders and their teams leverage pressure as a catalyst for exceptional performance rather than a barrier. Here’s her approach to maintaining peak performance during times of uncertainty:
Control What You Can
Dr. Kimberley Amirault-Ryan
Performance Consultant to the NHL, NBA, and Olympians | Executive Coach
In a world of constant change, pressure is part of life — but it doesn’t have to be paralyzing. High performers turn pressure into fuel by staying focused and resilient. The key is controlling what we can: our mindset, preparation, and responses.
Use tools like visualization, breathing techniques, and routines to create stability. Break goals into small, manageable steps to maintain momentum. Ground yourself through exercise, mindfulness, and structured planning.
Adaptability is essential — view change as a chance to grow. Support your resilience by prioritizing sleep, nutrition, exercise, and positive connections. Limit distractions, especially constant news, and protect your focus.
In uncertain times, our greatest strength is staying present. Build mental clarity by reflecting on wins, learning new skills, and showing yourself kindness. With the right mindset, you can perform at your best, no matter what life throws your way.
Meet More Expert Voices
Our performance specialists equip audiences with proven strategies to achieve optimal performance and sustained excellence through relentless pressure and uncertainty.
Dr. Lisa Bélanger
Behavioural Change Expert | Researcher
Dr. Ivan Joseph
Award-Winning Performance Coach | Leadership and Cultural Transformation Expert
Sarah Wells
Olympian | Expert on Individual and Organizational Excellence
Financial Stability During Disruption
Economic volatility threatens even the most carefully planned financial futures, creating anxiety about retirement security, investment performance, and the ability to weather unexpected personal financial setbacks
One of Canada’s best-loved authorities on personal finance and the bestselling author of Happy Go Money, Melissa Leong cuts through financial complexity with her signature straight-forward approach. She draws on her background in financial journalism and behavioural economics to help people make sound money decisions regardless of market conditions. Here’s her practical advice for maintaining financial stability during uncertain times:
Focus on the Fundamentals
Melissa Leong
Personal Finance Expert | National Media Personality | Bestselling Author
It’s natural to get caught up in the day’s headlines or for economic uncertainty to fuel anxiety. But when it comes to your financial well-being, the real focus should be on what you can control.
Regardless of what is happening in the world, the fundamentals of good money management remain the same: understand the flow of your money, make more than you spend, save consistently, invest wisely, and avoid unnecessary debt.
Automate savings to ensure you’re putting money aside regularly. Pay down high-interest debt so you’re not robbing your future self. Develop your long-term investment strategy, and diversify your investments properly to spread risk across different asset classes.
By focusing on your own financial world first, you’ll create a stable foundation that helps shield you from external chaos and allow you to thrive no matter what comes your way.
Meet More Expert Voices
Our finance experts provide clear, actionable strategies to help audiences feel confident in their financial decisions and build resilience against economic uncertainty, on both a personal and organizational level.
Preet Banerjee
Behavioural Finance Expert
Todd Hirsch
Navigator of Economic Disruption | Speaker | Author
Amber Kanwar
Prominent Financial and Business Journalist | Host, In the Money with Amber Kanwar
Clarity Amid Political Shifts
Political turbulence creates paralyzing uncertainty for organizations, as shifting policies, regulations, and global alliances disrupt established business models and demand constant strategic recalibration.
Professor Janice Gross Stein, Founding Director of the Munk School for Global Affairs, brings unparalleled insight into complex global dynamics. She excels at connecting geopolitical shifts to practical business implications. Here’s her framework for maintaining strategic clarity amid political uncertainty:
Establish a Strategic Framework
Janice Gross Stein
Founding Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto
Cut through the noise by having a strategic framework. What are the two or three things fundamental to your business survival, that anchor you to this world? Delegate everything else to others — keep an ear open if they’re having trouble but stay focused on the three big priorities.
Once you have them, imagine a pathway to each of them and reverse engineer back. Establish markers that can help you stay on course. This is how you can restore some sense of control in what is an out-of-control world.
We’ve left the world of probability behind. The world is reorganizing itself, for better or for worse, and in this new world of possibility, leaders can’t rely on the old playbook. If you do, it will wipe you out.
Meet More Expert Voices
Our political experts decode national and global developments and their business implications, helping organizations navigate policy shifts and geopolitical events with confidence and strategic foresight.
David Coletto
Marketing Research Leader | CEO, Abacus Data
Andrew Coyne
Political Journalist
Chantal Hébert
Political Raconteur | Columnist
Ready to Navigate Uncertainty with Confidence?
The difference between surviving uncertainty and thriving through it? The right guide. Give your team the clarity and confidence they need to excel, regardless of what tomorrow brings.
Contact us to learn more about our leading speakers and how they can help audiences transform today’s uncertainty into tomorrow’s competitive advantage.
