I went to beach yoga this morning, and when I got there (late), I was the only person. So the instructor, Kristin, asked me what I wanted to work on. I said balance, thinking I had to choose just one thing.

But as we went through the class, Kristin kept pointing out how, in yoga, three things all play a part: balance, strength, and flexibility. I started to notice that when I was in a balance pose, I needed flexibility to get into it and strength to hold it.

I'm preparing a keynote for a group of non-profit leaders in a couple weeks. The topic: leading through uncertainty. (Stay with me, I promise it circles back!)

Even if you're not in the non-profit space, you probably have a sense that sector is under stress. When you start to peer in, as I have in preparation, you learn that the stress is extreme. An executive director of a non-profit told me that 80% of their funding is at risk. Another confided that not only is funding way down, policy changes are constraining how they can serve their populations and raise or make money. A third summed it up in two words: "survival mode."

This is a weary group of leaders, and I've been engaged to lift them up.

No pressure then.

I have to confess: I started to worry that my message about leading through change would feel off the mark to these leaders. After all, my key point is that uncertainty is an invitation, and it can lead to a better future, where we can more powerfully serve our customers' or constituents' needs. Of course, I back it up with tangible actions leaders can take and plenty of inspirational examples.

But still, I wondered whether people in survival mode would have the desire to also be in creation mode.

So I decided to test my theory: I sent out a note to my business network, offering non-profit leaders sessions where I would help them experiment forward:

[offer] Are you in a non-profit that is experiencing high uncertainty right now? Survival mode vibes? I'm preparing a talk for non-profit leaders and want to make sure I'm meeting them where they're at. I'd love some practice and to help you move your team forward. If you're interested in a session where we talk about the reality you're facing and sketch an experiment that'll help right now, please DM me.

I had takers, and here's what I found: non-profit leaders are doing all the right things: making the hard calls about budgets (and people) and shoring up their funding.

But they also know that that's not enough. Just like Kristin's reminder that you can't balance without strength and flexibility, neither can leaders only focus on mitigation. They must also spend time on what they can create out of the uncertainty they're immersed in.

Partway through our yoga class, we were practicing a particularly challenging pose called crow. In it, you balance your knees on your upper arms and the only part of you on the ground is the palms of your hands (in theory, anyway!). Your natural instinct is to look down, to the ground you're inches away from falling onto.

But Kristin reminded us to look towards the horizon: "Where you look is where you go." I couldn't help but think that's the exact message exhausted leaders need to hear now, too.

You won't get there overnight, much like I'll keep falling in crow pose for a while, but the only way you will get there is by starting.

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If you're a non-profit leader, I'll make the same offer to you: if you'd like a free session in the next week to build an experiment together, reply and let me know. Feel free to forward this to non-profit friends.

And wherever you are, if you're facing uncertainty of any kind, remember: where you look is where you go. Decide whether you want that to be to safety or to a new world of your creation.

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