Dr. Cara explains what managers should avoid saying when layoffs loom: over-reassurance and silence both backfire. Instead, name the anxiety directly, validate how people feel, and lead from emotional intelligence rather than fear. Teams remember how you showed up during uncertainty more than what actually happens.
Right now, 16,000 people at Amazon are getting that email. 8,000 at Meta are going to start soon, and 1,000 at Walmart already. Your team has read those headlines, they've seen the layoff trackers, and they've watched the LinkedIn posts. And they're watching you, not for answers— they know you don't have answers. They're watching your face, your tone, and whether you mention it at all. If you're leading a team right now and you felt that weight in the room, the look that people get when they walk into your office a little too casually, the questions that aren't quite questions, this video is for you. You don't need to know what's coming next. You need to know how to lead the people who are already feeling it. I'm Dr. Cara, international psychologist, licensed therapist, psychotherapist, and senior executive leader. Quick thing before we go any further. If you're carrying this and you don't have anyone that you can really talk to about it, I've made something for this exact moment. It's called Dr. Cara's Virtual Mind. It's me in a tool that you can use anytime. For instance, when you have a hard meeting in the morning, or you need to think out loud at 11:00 PM in the evening. The link is in the description. Use it. Okay, let's get into this. Here's what most leaders get wrong about this moment. They think that their job is to manage the rumor, so they pick one of two strategies. Strategy 1: overreassurance. We're fine. Nothing's happening here. Don't worry about it. Strategy 2: shut it down. Let's stay focused on the work. We cannot control the noise. Both leak fear, and your team isn't asking you to manage the rumor. They're asking you whether you're gonna stay connected to them inside of it. That is a totally different question and requires a different kind of leadership. Here are 3 moves. Move 1, acknowledge the air before it asks to be acknowledged. The thing your team can't unhear isn't the rumor, it's your silence on it. Sometimes we think when we don't say anything that it means that people don't see what we're not saying. The reality is when you don't say something, you are saying something. If everyone in the room is reading the same news and you walk into the Monday meeting and pretend that it's not there, your team doesn't think that you're focused. They think that you're hiding something, or worse, they think that you don't care that they're scared. You don't have to have the answers. You don't have to have inside information. You just have to name what's in the room. You can try something like, "I know we're all watching what's happening across the industry right now. I don't have new information about us, and when I do, you will have it the same day that I have it. In the meantime, I see that this is sitting with us in the room." That's it. That's the whole first move, naming it without manufacturing certainty that you don't have. Move 2, separate what they need from what you feel the pressure to say. When your team is scared, you feel it, and the pressure to make it stop is huge. So you reach for the line that you hope makes the feeling go away. We're gonna be fine. Your role is safe. This won't affect us. Here's the problem. You don't actually know, and they know you don't know. So when you over-reassure, you don't comfort them. You accidentally tell them that their gut is wrong. You teach them not to trust their own instincts, and the next time that they sense something, they won't bring it to you. They're gonna go quiet, or they'll start updating their resume in private. What they actually need isn't reassurance. They need to know that they aren't crazy for feeling what they feel. So instead of, "We're fine," try, I can see why you're holding this. It makes sense that you are. You're not lying to them. You're not adding fuel. You're letting them feel what's real without abandoning them in it. Move 3, lead from your worth, not from your fear of getting it wrong. This is the one that costs the most because right now you might be sitting with your own fear. Your role may be on the list too. You might not know if you're still gonna be leading this team in 3 months. And here's what happens when leaders are scared and they don't have anywhere to put it. They perform, they start over-functioning, they start hustling for their worthiness. They send more updates than anyone needs. They schedule more check-ins. They use language that sounds like a press release. Your team can feel it. What they need from you isn't a performance of calm. It's actual calm, even partial, even imperfect. That kind comes from knowing who you are regardless of whether the organizational chart shifts beneath you. Daniel Goleman's research, the foundational work on leadership and emotional intelligence, found that nearly 90% of what separates exceptional leaders from average ones isn't IQ, it isn't strategy, it is not even experience. It's the ability to understand and manage yourself while staying connected to others. That's not a soft skill, that's the skill. And it's the one that matters the most in moments exactly like this one. You can't fake it, but you can build it. You build it by knowing what you bring doesn't change when the organizational chart does. The way you listen, the judgment that you've earned, the way that people feel safer when you walk in. That's not your title, that's you. And nobody can lay that off. If you're leading a team right now and the rumors are circling, you don't need a script. You need to know what's actually yours to give. It's not certainty. You don't have that. It's not protection because you can't promise that. What's yours is your presence, your honesty, your refusal to abandon your people emotionally, even when you can't protect them economically. That is enormous. Don't underestimate it. Years from now, the people on your team won't remember whether or not the layoff hit hit or didn't hit. They will remember exactly how you behaved while it was in the air. Mm. So before I close, here's what I want you to know. The way you lead through a moment like this comes down to something deeper than a skill. It comes down to how you were shaped as a leader long before this wave hit. If you want to understand why you're responding the way you are, why you reach for reassurance, or why you go quiet, why you over-prepare, or why you can't sit with uncertainty or discomfort, I built something for that. It's called Dr. Cara's Leadership Origin Profile. You take it at the link below, and it's free. You'll see yourself in the way that you lead in a way that you haven't before. You lead well. Now lead as yourself. I'm Dr. Cara. Connect to yourself first and then elevate and expand for those you lead. Until we connect again.
