Is This a Season, or a New Normal? A Leader's Guide to What's Next
The holidays are coming. You know what that means. The calendar fills up, the to-do list grows, and the hustle starts to feel…well, a lot like hustle. For a few months, your rhythms shift. You add travel, celebrations, and a lot of extra logistics to an already full schedule. But here's the key: you know it won't last forever. The holiday hustle is a season, and in a few months, things will settle back into a different rhythm.
We all instinctively understand this. The holiday season, with its unique demands and its known end date, is the perfect metaphor for navigating change in work and in life. It offers a framework for one of the most powerful questions a leader can ask, both of themselves and their team: Is this a season, or is this a new normal?
This question can be applied to nearly any challenging situation. Is the sudden increase in workload due to a single, big project, or is it a permanent change to your team's capacity? Is the bottleneck in our approval process a temporary issue due to a software update, or is it a new normal that requires an overhaul of our workflow? The answer determines how to proceed.
Why the Distinction Matters
For leaders, the stakes of this question are high. Pretending a new normal is just a season is a recipe for burnout, distrust, and quiet resistance. It’s a leadership blind spot that causes teams to lose faith in a leader’s judgment because they know the reality doesn’t match the messaging.
For example, imagine a tech department is facing a three-month hiring freeze. A well-intentioned manager tells their team to "power through this quarter." The team sees this as a temporary "season" and doubles down to make it work. But when the freeze is quietly extended, the manager's failure to reassess and communicate the new reality erodes the team's trust. The team's goodwill and energy were spent on what they thought was a short-term sprint, and they're now left feeling overwhelmed and unsupported as the challenge isn't going away.
On the other hand, leaders who get this right build trust and rally their teams around a shared sense of purpose. They turn ambiguity into a clear path forward by asking the question that leads to a decision-making tree:
The Decision-Making Tree: From Question to Action
This question isn’t just for self-reflection; it’s a tool for leadership. The moment you name something as a season or a new normal, a new set of questions emerges, each leading you toward a different path.
If It’s a Season:
Acknowledge it for what it is—a temporary state with a known end.
Action: Your job is to rally the team to get through it. Set clear expectations for this defined period, provide extra support where you can, and offer hope that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
Example: If your team is facing a short-term increase in workload due to a new product launch, your conversation shifts from "this is just how it is now" to "this is a push for the next eight weeks, and here’s how we'll support each other."
If It’s a New Normal:
This is where the real work begins. If it’s a new normal, your team needs you to do more than just manage expectations; they need you to lead.
Ask the clarifying question: The first step is to ask, "Are we okay with this?" This is a brave, honest question that opens the door to collective problem-solving.
If the answer is "yes," your work is to help the team adjust. You can help them reframe expectations, streamline processes to fit the new reality, and move forward with clarity and confidence. The new normal isn't a problem to solve; it's a new landscape to navigate.
If the answer is "no," this is your moment to advocate and act. This is not a time for passive leadership. Your next steps might include:
Advocating for Change: You may need to have a conversation with your own senior leaders about the impact of the new normal and advocate for a different path. This is a time to leverage your influence and advocate for your team.
Redesigning the Work: The new reality may require you to rethink roles, processes, or even the team's core purpose. This is a moment for strategic restructuring, not quiet resistance.
Making a Bigger Decision: In some cases, the new normal may fundamentally change a role or an organization. In these moments, you have to be willing to engage in honest conversations with team members about whether their role still fits their strengths and goals.
Sidenote: There are times when leaders don’t have the luxury of asking their team if they’re okay with a new normal. A leader may simply come to understand that the situation has changed, and what was once a choice has now become a reality. In these moments, leadership is about acknowledging the new reality, communicating it with clarity and empathy, and working with your team to figure out, “Okay, given this new normal, what adjustments do we need to make to still meet our goals and support one another?” In these situations, the leader asks and answers the season or norm questions and then must take proactive steps to lead through it.
You're Already in the Practice
Whether you realize it or not, you're already a master of navigating seasons. You know how to get through the holiday hustle. You understand that a few weeks of a busy schedule don't define the entire year.
The true leadership practice is to apply this same lens of intentionality to every other challenge you face. Use this season of holidays as a reminder to ask the same clarifying questions in your own work: What are you enduring as a temporary season that might actually be a new normal? How can you lead yourself and your team based on what you discover?
Need Support?
Asking whether something is a season or a new normal is a powerful practice, but it’s often just the first step. The real work is in making meaning from the answer, and then leading yourself and your team through the next season or into the new normal with clarity and intention.
At transform.forward, we regularly help leaders and teams navigate these exact challenges. Through individual coaching engagements, we support leaders in processing where they are in their careers and what they ultimately want their professional leadership story to be. With teams, we facilitate decision-making processes and design change management and team development strategies needed to successfully adjust to new norms.
If you’re ready to move from questions to intentional action for yourself or your team - reach out - we would love to be a thought partner in that journey.
