The Holding Pattern: Leading Your Team Through the Wait

There’s a particular kind of workplace limbo that many leaders and managers struggle with. It’s the change that has been announced or decided but hasn’t arrived yet. This could be anything from a signed merger that isn’t beginning for another 3 months, a new executive that’s been named but hasn’t yet been onboarded, or the time between election results and the incoming elected officials taking office.

During that stretch, everyone knows something is coming, yet almost no one knows what it means for them. Even if planning documents are ready, people still show up every day and do their jobs without answers to the questions they care about most: Will my role change? Will my project survive? Should I be looking elsewhere?

This is the holding pattern. Handled poorly, it drains energy, stalls work, and creates talent attrition before the change even begins. Handled well, a team can be highly productive and set the stage for a smooth transition. The difference is how managers lead people through the wait.

Recognize Waiting Fatigue

It’s easy to underestimate how tiring waiting can actually be. When people don’t know what’s ahead, they spend mental energy running through possibilities, which depletes the resources they need for their daily work. The result is waiting fatigue; it can appear as a team that feels slightly off rather than a full-blown crisis, which makes it tricky to navigate. Common signs of the waiting fatigue include:

• Speculation replacing work: Hallway and chat conversations shift toward guessing what will happen; the same questions repeatedly circulate.
• “Why bother?” thinking: People hesitate to start anything new because they believe it might be cancelled or redone.
• Decision avoidance: Routine choices get postponed, even ones that are not impacted by the incoming change.
• Quiet withdrawal: Some employees stop contributing ideas, skip optional meetings they used to attend, or keep their cameras off more than usual.
• Uneven energy: Some will overwork to prove their value while others try to simply coast.

So what do you do? The first step is to verbalize the waiting fatigue for the team. By saying, “This in-between period is hard, and it’s normal if it’s affecting your focus,” people have permission to acknowledge what they’re feeling, making it easier to redirect their energy back to their daily work.

Give the Wait a Purpose

The most effective remedy for “why bother?” is work that clearly matters no matter what happens next. Managers can build a holding-pattern portfolio, i.e.: a short list of team tasks chosen specifically because they hold their value through any outcome.

Good candidates for the holding-pattern portfolio include:

• Finish what’s in progress: Bring current projects to clean stopping points, so they can be handed off, paused, or continued without losing ground.
• Clear the backlog: Tackle the small fixes, overdue updates, and lingering requests that never rise to the top during busy periods.
• Fix team friction: Look for opportunities to streamline or adjust internal workflows, templates, and processes that have been slowing things down.
• Prepare for new leadership: Draft a concise briefing on what the team does, what it has accomplished, and what it needs. Incoming leaders almost always ask for this, and teams that have it ready make a strong first impression.
• Invest in talent development: Use lighter workloads for the training, certifications, and stretch learning that usually get postponed.
• Build connections: Strengthen working relationships with adjacent teams, which tend to matter more once change arrives.

The key is to frame this work honestly. Don’t present it as busy work to fill time. Present it as the team’s chance to enter the next chapter in the strongest possible position. People can tell the difference, and the second framing restores a sense of agency at a time when so much feels out of their control.

Watch Your Flight Risks

Uncertainty doesn’t push everyone toward the exit equally. The people most likely to leave during a holding pattern are sometimes the ones you can least afford to lose. Strong performers have the most options, the most confidence that they’ll land well elsewhere, and the least patience to wait to find out what will happen. Competitors and recruiters also know when an organization is in transition, and they reach out accordingly.

Watch for subtle signals: a sudden interest in taking leave, updated professional profiles, less engagement in long-term discussions, or a high performer who stops volunteering for new work.

Then act deliberately:

• Have direct one-on-one conversations: Ask your key people how they’re experiencing the transition and what would make them want to stay through it. Many organizations already use stay interviews, and the holding pattern is an ideal time to hold them.
• Give work that matters: Assign your strongest people to the most visible pieces of the holding-pattern portfolio, such as the briefing for incoming leadership.
• Be honest about what you don’t know: Saying “I don’t know yet, but I’ll tell you when I do” builds more trust than a vague reassurance.
• Don’t make promises you can’t keep: Guaranteeing someone’s role or promotion during a transition can backfire badly if the change goes another way. Commit to what can be controlled: advocating for them, keeping them informed, and supporting their development.

Retention during a holding pattern can sometimes be as simple as making sure good people don’t leave just because no one asked them to stay.

Set Norms When Feelings Run High

Some holding patterns come with strong emotions attached. Employees may be thrilled or dismayed by a new executive, a merger partner, or an election result, and they won’t all feel the same way. Those differences can strain relationships if they spill into daily work.

Managers can’t and shouldn’t police how people feel. They can, however, set clear expectations for how people treat each other. Useful norms include:

• Focus on behavior, not opinions: Everyone is entitled to their view. The standard is that colleagues are treated with respect regardless of where they stand.
• Keep debates out of shared workspaces: Team meetings and work channels are for work. Celebrating or criticizing the outcome belongs elsewhere.
• Don’t assume agreement: Avoid jokes or offhand remarks that presume everyone on the team is on the same side of an issue.
• Model it yourself: Leaders’ reactions are noticed and repeated. A manager who stays even-handed demonstrates how they want the team to act.

These norms matter most after an election, but they apply to any change that people feel personally invested in. The goal is a team where people with different reactions can still work well together the next morning.

Help People Get Comfortable With Not Knowing

Tolerance for ambiguity varies widely from person to person. Some employees are energized by an open question. Others find it genuinely distressing. Managers can’t remove the uncertainty, but they can help their team members carry it more easily.

Three practices help:

1. Sort what’s in and out of reach. In a one-on-one or team conversation, separate the concerns people can act on (e.g.: their skills, their current projects, their relationships) from the ones they can’t (e.g.: the final decisions about structure or funding). Encourage people to spend their energy on the first list, the things in their control.
2. Shorten the planning horizon. When the distant future is unclear, set goals for the next two to three weeks instead of the next quarter. Short, achievable goals give people a steady sense of progress and completion.
3. Separate facts from assumptions. When a worry comes up, ask, “What do we actually know, and what are we assuming?” Many of the most stressful scenarios turn out to rest on rumors.

Pay attention to individual differences, too. The employee who seems unbothered may be fine or could be internalizing their concerns. Regular, low-pressure check-ins make it easier for people to speak up when the uncertainty is getting to them.

A Familiar Example: The 60 Days After an Election

The period after an election is a clear holding pattern. The 2026 midterms take place on November 3, and the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, roughly 60 days later. Many state and local officials take office on a similar timeline. For government teams, contractors, and organizations shaped by public policy, those weeks can feel like a pause button.

It also happens to overlap with the holidays, year-end deadlines, and planning for the new year, which makes it easy for a team to drift until January. Here’s how a manager might use the window instead:

• Week 1: Acknowledge that the outcome may be on people’s minds, restate the team’s norms for respectful conversation, and keep the focus on current commitments.
• Weeks 2 to 4: Launch the holding-pattern portfolio. Assign owners to complete works in-progress, clear any backlogs, and/or any other tasks that are not dependent on a specific result, both the necessary and the “nice-to-have” ones.
• Weeks 2 to 6: Hold one-on-ones with key team members, paying special attention to strong performers who may be fielding outside offers.
• Weeks 6 to 8: Bring the holding-pattern portfolio projects to clean stopping points and set short-term goals for the first weeks of the new year.

By the time new officeholders are sworn in, this team is ready to respond, with its work in order and its people still in place.

When the Wait Ends

Every holding pattern ends eventually. The merger closes, the new executive starts or the new legislation goes into effect. What happens next depends heavily on the team’s condition when that moment arrives.

A team that spent the wait speculating and stalling arrives tired, behind, and short on trust. A team that spent the wait finishing work, building skills, and staying connected arrives with momentum. When the team knows their manager was honest with them, the group is ready to contribute from day one.

The holding pattern can’t be skipped. With steady leadership, however, it doesn’t have to be lost time. It can be the perfect opportunity for a team to get stronger.

When has your team been in a holding pattern? How did you get through it? Leave a comment below, send us an email, or follow us on LinkedIn.