Dealing with Uncertainty in Business — with James Leighton from Andersen James

What is your initial reaction when you lose your biggest client, which accounts for 90% of your income?

For James, it was anger. 

The uncertainty of it all — mixed with feelings of embarrassment and despair — left him unable to take action.

But the longer he left it, the more he realised that only he would be the one to save the situation. 

In this episode of the podcast, James reflects on the internal processes that left him unable to take action for 2 weeks, and how what he learned helped him when encountering a similar level of shock and uncertainty in the pandemic, 2 years after this event. 

James sees this as a catastrophe mindset, and has since learned to challenge this when it arises. 

In this episode, we talk about 

• How he handles uncertainty today
• The dangers of putting all the eggs in one basket
• The impact of your reactions on your team

James has clearly had a lot of time to reflect and learn from that day. And has since been able to scale his team, take on multiple clients and build strong relationships with them. 

Tune in as he shares how he would handle this situation today — and what his key learnings were.

More from James:

Connect with James on LinkedIn or at peer-effect.com