How to Effectively Lead Through the “Permacrisis”

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Do you know how to lead through a permacrisis? If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it was Collins Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2022 and truly captured that particular moment—and so many moments still to come.

A permacrisis is an extended period of instability in which you lurch from one unprecedented, catastrophic event to another. 

The last few years are a prime example: Just as we were getting on the other side of COVID, there was the supply chain crisis, then the capital markets were fluctuating like never before, then there was a war in Europe, then the energy crisis. Add to that rampant disinformation and a new artificial intelligence challenge taking the world by storm?

As soon as we get through one crisis, another pops up to take its place.

The Problem With Traditional Crisis Management

Before permacrises became the norm, leaders would manage a temporary crisis by quickening the pace. For the time being, they'd ask people to take on a higher workload. They’d make budget cuts until they could resume the status quo.

They used to say, “As soon as we get through this, we’ll be able to deal with that.” But there’s just no getting through it anymore. For leaders, that “hunker down” ideology is simply not realistic.

First off, it leads to burnout. These permacrises are wearing us down. It turns out that what doesn’t kill us doesn’t always make us stronger. It makes us weaker and more vulnerable.

Second, it doesn’t consider this new normal of constant uncertainty and change. To succeed in this era of permacrisis, we need disruptive, transformational leaders who are willing to think differently, day in and day out, regardless of the external forces coming at them and who can provide stability when all the infrastructures around them are faltering and failing. 

Three Ways to Lead Through a Permacrisis

To be that disruptive leader, you must lead yourself, your team, and your organization effectively.

1. Lead Yourself

Before you can lead others, you must be able to lead yourself. This is one of the most challenging obstacles, requiring mindfulness and self-awareness. Tap into your concerns and anxieties to better understand if you are thinking from a scarcity point of view or considering possibilities. Ask: How will I stay calm so I can see the reality of what’s happening around me?

Also paramount: Accepting the potential for failure. When there’s a crisis, it’s natural to wonder what will happen if you fail, but if you’re clouded by fear or shame, you aren’t in a healthy position to lead.

This happened to me when I was running my company, and we had to go through a round of layoffs. Consumed by shame, I closed in on myself. I was frozen. I had a support network of fellow CEOs, but I felt too embarrassed to ask them for help—to get advice for creating a stable structure for my team going forward and to provide the best possible path for those I was letting go. 

That’s when I realized that if I can’t lead myself through this crisis, I can’t lead anyone else.

2. Lead Your Team

One of the biggest mistakes leaders make during a crisis, especially an economic crisis facing the company, is shifting priorities away from people.

You often see companies canceling annual off-sites—the one to two days outside the office meant to foster team-building and generate new ideas—during uncertain times to keep the budget in check and focus on the work. 

If it's a short-term crisis, you may want to postpone it, but when you have a permacrisis, when will there be a better time? It will never come. And you can’t afford to skip those opportunities because when you prioritize doing things rather than developing people, you’ll pay for it in the long run. Have the off-site—maybe it’s not at the five-star location you’d originally envisioned, but double down and invest in the relationship-building experience it will provide your team.

That’s what leadership is all about—fostering a relationship between you as a leader and your followers to create the change you want to see. And leadership in a permacrisis means understanding how your relationships will change as you go through challenging times and what aspects you will never compromise on.

Of course, you have work that needs to get done. It may seem counterintuitive, but if you want your team to be productive, focus less on the tasks than the people.

With the onset of COVID, employee engagement surprisingly rose. That’s because leaders were taking time and asking their workers, “How are you doing?” Following the tragic murder of George Floyd, it rose even more—because leaders were committed to being of service to their teams: “What do you need? How can we move forward?”

When we have high employee engagement because we’re intentionally checking in, it fuels the relationship so that we can push through these crises to ultimately get things done.

3. Lead Your Organization

One of the biggest challenges of leading through a permacrisis is knowing what to do as an organization. How do you appropriately adjust strategy so you aren’t thrown entirely off track by a pandemic, economic recession, or war? How can you focus on both disruptive transformation and your long-term plans?

When decision fatigue sets in, the most important thing you can do is create a clear view of the organization’s future. We may opt out of this exercise amid a crisis because, well, what if we’re wrong?

But if you have a vision for the future, you can then understand, step by step, what must be done to make it a reality. And if what must be done isn’t possible, you can pivot. You can change course. Simply having a point of view on the future provides leaders the solidity and structure to align themselves with their team, board, and customers.

Your Turn

What about the permacrisis keeps you up at night? What's the major crisis you're dealing with now as a leader?