When ‘Easing Up’ Isn’t Enough: Leading with Vision, Standards & Values in Unsettled Times

If you’re leading a team right now—whether it’s a lab, a project, or even a handful of students—odds are you’ve wondered: Should I be taking it easier on everyone? With travel bans in the news, global uncertainty, and international students losing sleep over what tomorrow might bring, it might feel almost wrong to keep standards high.

But is “going easy” really what your team needs—or is there a more supportive way to lead?

In the past few weeks, I’ve heard from so many leaders who feel stuck between compassion and clarity. Their people—especially international students and postdocs—are exhausted and anxious. Much of what’s happening is beyond anyone’s direct control: abrupt policy changes, tense news cycles, funding doubts, and now, sudden travel restrictions.

It’s tempting, even human, to want to lighten the load. Maybe you’ve thought: “I’ll just lower the bar for now, try not to add more stress, let things slide until things settle down.” I get it. I’ve been there myself. But, in my experience, while softening standards might seem kind, it often leaves teams even more unmoored.

I spent years thinking leadership meant “doing more” for my team—jumping into details, fixing problems, filling every gap, and shouldering every question. Especially when circumstances felt unstable, my instinct was to transmit—give direction, jump in, constantly “do.”

But here’s what I missed: when anxiety is high, what people crave isn’t someone to take over their work. It’s producing clarity, specifically of the vision and standards that give shape and meaning to the chaos.

When leaders habitually transmit, always “doing more,” they often fail to listen and genuinely receive. That means missing the chance to witness where your team is, what they need, and how you can best support them to rise to the occasion.

I learned this the hard way in my own lab. As a postdoc-turned-leader, I clung to my old habits as a bioinformatician—deeply involved in the coding, always ready to do the “hard stuff” myself. Even when I tried to hand off work, I resisted setting explicit standards, worried I’d come across as too demanding or rigid. I figured if I gave my people freedom, plus a sort of general, vague “vision”, things would come together.

Instead, the team got bogged down, motivation lagged, and the results weren’t great. The problem wasn’t that I was too tough—it was that I’d left the vision and the standards too muddy.

→ My fear of being “mean” by setting high expectations actually made things messier. ←

Here’s the lesson I wish I’d learned sooner: Setting clear Vision, Standards, and Values (VSV) isn’t harsh or cold. It’s a gift.

When you make these visible and real, your team doesn’t feel policed—they feel anchored. High standards—when shared transparently and coached with empathy—don’t raise stress. They raise trust.

If you’re feeling unsure of where to start, begin with a team conversation about what’s changed lately. Invite everyone to name what’s hard—then calmly, clearly, put your vision, standards, and values on the table. Ask for their input. Coach toward them, rather than away from them.

Especially with travel bans, unstable headlines, and endless unknowns, your team’s stress isn’t something you can erase. But your clarity—the gift of a north star, the ground rules for collaboration, the “why” and the “how”—can be what keeps everyone moving, even in uncertainty.

It’s tempting to try to absorb everyone’s anxiety or to back off expectations “until things are normal again.” But that day may be a long way off. Right now, your steadiness will mean more than ever—if you frame it as a form of care.

If you’re navigating this as a leader, you aren’t alone. It took a lot of messiness and some honest self-reflection for me to realize this in my own work. But it’s one of the most powerful shifts you can make for yourself—and your team.

Have you experimented with this? Are you struggling to set or hold standards in a chaotic moment? I’d love to hear how you’re handling it. (leave a comment below.)