The world's financial markets are in chaos as I write this note. Everyday is volatile with huge swings across the globe. Foreclosures are escalating, the auto industry is melting down, real estate is crashing, loans are impossible to find, layoffs are starting, health care costs are zooming up, global warming is happening. In general the world has been tipped upside down. Chaos seems to be the byword.

In these troubled times what do you tell your team at work? What do you tell your partner and family? What do you tell your self?

If you can speak from center you can authentically say what you know and then say what you don't know. People are looking to you for guidance. If you tell them everything is going to be OK, they know and sense this is an empty promise. We see this with many politicians and you might even see this with your boss. Or worse nothing is said, leaving a silence filled with rumors and anxiety.

As a great leader you don't know what will happen. Say this to your team from a centered, vertical position. There is great relief for both you and your reports to say this out loud and with out personality. There is sense of we are in this together and the organic unfolding is unpredictable.

And you should also say what you do know, also speaking from center, not from personality. Vertical, open, extended and connecting with your team. Telling them where we are today and what is the current status. Then committing to updating them frequently on the "don't know " topics.

This also works at home on non economic issues like death, divorce and sickness. Kids and animals get this quickly. 

Try I know and I don't know, both spoken from center with the same intensity and energy. Your team will rally with you through these troubling times.