I’m excited to be designing a program I’ll be leading in September for a group of financial management professionals on change management. As I’ve been building the content, I keep thinking “what financial leaders need to know about change management is important information for all leaders.”

It’s true that financial managers work in environments where change is constant, consequential, and usually dictated by forces outside of their control. There are shifting priorities and regulations, as well as leadership transitions and budget constraints. While these challenges may not be exactly the same as yours, all of us will navigate something uncertain and scary throughout our work and home lives. The cliche that the only thing constant is change is true.

What I have learned from years of coaching leaders through change is this: technical skill gets you noticed and perhaps earns you a leadership position, but knowing how to help people move through a transition, not just announce a change, is what makes you a true leader. Change management researcher William Bridges made a distinction I refer to often: the event itself is the change, but the mess in the middle which is the part nobody wants to deal with is the transition. People have to move through an ending, a disorienting middle, and a new beginning.

Whether you work in the public or private sector, whether your expertise is finance, operations, teaching, medicine, or sales, your work and your team will always be shifting. You will always have outside people placing demands on your work whether they are nervous investors, a persnickety board, a watchful community group, or anxious parents. Each of them needs information as it is known. Just as importantly, they need reassurance, delivered calmly.

What I hear from leaders is “I don’t have enough information to share anything just yet.” Or “My leadership keeps changing direction so I am going to wait until the plan is finalized,” or “I am afraid if I tell them, they will all look for new jobs.” While these may all be true, a lack of communication is even more scary than disclosing what is known. Providing information creates trust.

What strong leaders know is that it’s okay to be vulnerable. They realize they don’t have to have all the answers, they just need to be transparent about the process. That’s really Bridges’ whole point: the disorienting middle isn’t a detour on the way to the new beginning, it’s a required stop. A leader’s job isn’t to rush people past it or pretend it away, it’s to be honest that it’s happening, and stay present while people move through it. Steadiness is something you build while things are still moving. You can’t wait for calm waters to build steadiness.

One of the most useful things any group can have during a disruptive stretch isn’t certainty, it’s the opportunity to share in the discomfort. Trying to protect employees is not only impossible, it weakens the lines of communication and deteriorates trust.

Leadership isn’t a feeling that shows up once things calm down, it’s a set of behaviors. It’s how you communicate, how you check in with the people around you and how you separate what’s yours to control from what isn’t.

Leadership isn’t the absence of uncertainty. It’s your response to it.