David Meade is Founder of David Meade Keynote Speaker.
I’ve spent my career studying what drives high-performing teams, and in recent years, much of my work has centered on helping organizations lead through uncertainty. I deliver about 150 keynotes a year to Fortune 500 companies, but before all that, my background was in academia at one of Ireland’s leading business schools. During that time, I developed a passion for the psychology of teams that achieved extraordinary results. What I’ve learned is this: you don’t lead through change by pretending to have all the answers. You lead by leaning into human behavior by understanding how people think, feel and work when the path ahead is unclear.
Co-Author The Journey
One of the most important things I’ve learned is the power of authentic co-authorship. When people feel like change is being driven by someone else somewhere else, it’s easy for them to sit back as passengers, hoping the executive team will steer things in the right direction. But when you meaningfully involve your team in shaping the journey, it lights a bonfire under them. It’s like setting fire to their soul. Suddenly, they’re not just doing work, they’re contributing to the very narrative of the organization.
Vulnerability Is Strength
Leaders often think we need to know the next three, five or ten steps. But let’s be honest, most of the time, we don’t. And our teams know that. That’s why I believe vulnerability in leadership is a superpower. When we say, “Look, I don’t know everything, but I think together we can figure this out,” we create a guiding coalition. That transparency builds a kind of connective tissue you can feel and sense across the organization.
There’s science behind this. It’s called the Pratfall Effect. Years ago, researchers found that when someone spilled coffee on themselves before taking a quiz, and still performed well, they were rated more likable, trustworthy and competent than someone who didn’t spill. Why? Because vulnerability makes us human. It allows people to connect with us.
Be The Lighthouse, Not The Weatherman
As leaders, we don’t need to predict the future; we need to provide clarity, even if we can’t provide certainty. I often say: be the lighthouse, not the weatherman. Our job is to help people orient themselves, not overwhelm them. Too many Zoom calls, newsletters, and status updates create noise. But too little communication leaves people isolated. The goal is to deliver the right information at the right time, enough to support autonomy, not stifle it.
Model For The Worst
I once worked with Sully Sullenberger—yes, that Sully—and one of the most compelling things he shared was how aviation remains one of the safest forms of travel: they model everything. Even if a six-seater plane has a mechanical issue in Alaska, it’s logged and shared with every pilot globally. They train not just for good days, but for bad ones.
Leaders should do the same. One tool I recommend is the premortem. Instead of asking “What went wrong?” after the fact, ask “What could go wrong?” before you even start. What would it look like if we screwed this up so badly we ended up on the evening news? It’s a powerful way to help teams emotionally and psychologically prepare for turbulence, so they’re not blindsided when it comes.
Autonomy Over Micromanagement
There’s a great piece of research by Dan Pink that shows how critical autonomy is to human motivation. If people don’t have autonomy, what separates them from an algorithm? I’ve seen this firsthand in teams I work with. Some individuals need a coalition around them—they do their best work when someone is to their left and right. Others need to disappear for a few days, unplug, and solve problems independently. As a leader, your job is to meet people at their point of need. That requires emotional agility and sensitivity.
Motivate With Meaning And Fairness
If you want high performance, don’t just direct—co-create. Even when I know the next step, I often choose to nudge a team toward discovering it themselves. It makes all the difference. And once they do, recognize it. Celebrate wins publicly, and give critical feedback privately.
There’s a famous experiment with monkeys—yes, monkeys—where two monkeys performed the same task. When one received a cucumber and the other a grape, the cucumber monkey threw a fit. He banged the rock against the wall. Why? Because we all crave fairness. Whether it’s recognition, pay or opportunities, people notice inequity. And nothing saps motivation faster.
Transparency Builds Discretionary Effort
There’s a phrase I come back to again and again: the only thing that separates a good team from a great one is discretionary effort—that 1%, 3%, 5% people give when no one’s watching. To earn it, you need to be visible and accessible. I once worked with a regional bank whose CEO had a phone in the lobby that connected directly to him. Most people assumed it was fake. But eight times out of ten, he answered. That kind of radical transparency builds trust. It tells people: “I’m not hiding behind strategy decks and boardrooms. I’m right here with you.”
Confront The Bad Apple
There’s another piece of research by Will Phelps about what he calls the bad apple effect. In a team of 10 or 20, one toxic person can lower the performance of the entire group. Leaders sometimes avoid confrontation because they think, “That’s just how that person is.” But if you don’t address it early, it spreads. One bad apple becomes two, then four and before long, toxicity becomes culture.
Don’t Avoid Fear, Address It
Finally, we have to talk about burnout and anxiety. The worst thing a leader can do is pretend the outside world doesn’t affect their team. It does. Acknowledge it. One of the biggest studies on workplace performance, conducted by Google, found that the #1 predictor of high-performing teams wasn’t talent or tools. It was psychological safety: the ability to show up, speak up and fail without fear.
That doesn’t mean pretending everything’s fine. It means modeling calmness. I sometimes tell the story of a nervous midwife who couldn’t hide her lack of confidence. The result? Nobody in the room trusted her. It’s the same with leadership. Your team doesn’t need fake certainty, but they do need steady hands on the wheel.
Leading Through The Fog Of Uncertainty
You don’t have to be the pilot who guarantees a smooth flight. But you do need to be the one who says, “We may hit turbulence, but we’re trained, prepared and in this together.” That’s what leadership in uncertainty looks like. It’s psychological. It’s human. And it’s what separates teams that survive from those that thrive.
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