Three Habits That Help Leaders Stay Steady Through Change

When you are navigating constant change, the hardest part usually isn’t the strategy. It’s staying steady enough to lead well while everything shifts.

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Maybe you’ve just inherited a team, entered a re-org, or moved into a role where the expectations are unclear. The pressure is real: stay composed, learn fast, and keep your team steady.

Throughout my career, change has been a constant. I have relocated 12 times, lived in 10 different countries across five continents, and have taken on a dozen progressively senior positions. Most of these transitions occurred during a 30-year tenure with the United Nations.

These experiences have brought me to war-torn regions, refugee camps, and areas affected by natural disasters. I have had the opportunity to meet with ambassadors, ministers, and presidents, as well as to visit lively classrooms filled with thriving children, green productive fields, and homes rebuilt after civil wars. Most recently, I have navigated profound changes within the humanitarian system.

While my career path has not been traditional, the challenges and lessons I encountered often mirror those faced by professionals navigating international corporate environments. The hard-earned insights from balancing career demands and personal life amid constant change helped me to develop resilience and strong leadership skills. I hope these experiences can offer guidance to others seeking to sustain a rewarding and impactful career in the face of ongoing transformation.

Reflecting back, I can narrow down the most important lessons to three that have sustained me over the years:

• Lean into learning,
• Be flexible in your work or management styles,
• Be kind to yourself. Acknowledge when you are overwhelmed, and take a real break before stress becomes burnout.

In my work with BenchStrength Coaching, I’ve coached women in multiple countries, in corporate roles in various industries, and these lessons consistently apply. Leaders in transition perform best when they build a few simple habits that protect clarity, flexibility, and resilience.

Lean into Learning (Aim for professional and personal growth over perfection)

With each career advancement or position change in my own career, I found myself in new countries, new roles, new teams, working for new supervisors, and sometimes surrounded by unfamiliar languages. Experiences like these reminded me that it is unrealistic to expect perfection from the very first day.

What helped me most is learning to “lean into learning.” Career transitions naturally come with emotional ups and downs, and I have learned to accept the discomfort as part of the growth process. Rather than rushing to prove what I know, I try to focus first on listening to experienced colleagues and approaching new aspects of the job as opportunities for development.

One practice that has served me well is setting a personal goal with each transition: to learn something new. Not to perfect it, but to simply enjoy the process of learning. Over the years, this mindset has led me to embrace, though certainly not master, new languages, sailing, ocean paddle boarding, and even a return to the cello, an instrument I had abandoned when I left for college.

When I faced particularly difficult management situations, I used this “lean into learning” mindset to see how I could change my actions to improve a situation. I’d reflect on the context and my behaviors vis-a-vis others and try to see if I could make changes to improve the situation.

Be Flexible in Your Work Style

Early in my career, several managers gave me frank and constructive feedback that helped me better understand my management style and how I approach work. One of the most important lessons I took from those conversations was the value of self-awareness and adaptability. The ability to adjust your approach is essential for getting results, not only across different national cultures, but also across different organizational cultures. Working in a small organization can require a very different style than working in a large one. Similarly, communication styles that are effective in many Western environments may not resonate the same way in some Asian contexts. Effective managers recognize these differences and adapt their approach while remaining clear, respectful, and authentic.

In my own experience working across cultures, I’ve learned that the first step in a new environment is to listen, observe, and ask questions. Early in my career, I stepped into a role with a steep learning curve in a culture very different from what I was used to. During my first months, I focused on listening carefully to my government counterpart and to my national colleagues to understand how they worked and what mattered to them. The government I worked with had a reputation for being difficult, but I was able to maintain constructive relationships throughout the several years I worked there. In my final meeting with my main government counterpart, he told me that he and his colleagues appreciated that when I first arrived, I took the time to listen. He said it helped smooth the working relationship from the start. That feedback stayed with me and reinforced an important lesson: listening, showing respect, and adapting your approach can make a real difference in how teams collaborate and succeed.