Anne Machesky Of Nwyze On Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Uncertain & Turbulent Times

Introspection is a strategic tool. When we slow down and allow space for answers to emerge, higher-quality insight naturally follows.

As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Anne Machesky.

Anne is a speaker, change agent and founder of Nwyze, a transformational coaching company that helps growth-minded leaders, individuals, teams and organizations see more so they can be more. Through keynotes, workshops and coaching, she shows participants how to use introspection as a strategic advantage and move from feeling stuck to understanding their next. Drawing on over two decades of experience working with professionals and organizations across industries — as a small business owner, poet and practitioner of neurolinguistics and cognitive communication — Anne helps audiences recognize unhelpful patterns, rethink assumptions and expand their field of possibility.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Early in my career, I was really drawn to investing and helping people understand how to use it in a meaningful way. Over time, that interest just kept growing, and I reached a point where I wanted to build something that brought it to life for others. That drive led to the creation of my first business.

Several years later, my second business came from a different chapter for me. I was going through my own period of change and growth, and I started thinking a lot about impact — not just what we do professionally, but how we understand and measure the impact we have more broadly. I wanted to create something that helped people explore that more intentionally, and from there, Nwyze was born. It’s rooted in the idea of helping people see differently so they can think, lead and live with greater intention.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

At the end of a long workday, my colleague and I were sitting in the office at 8:30 p.m., unwinding over some McDonald’s. Both of us were pretty exhausted. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door — and it was a new client saying, “We’re here for our appointment.”

My colleague and I looked at each other in complete confusion and immediately checked our paper calendars. We saw “8:30” written at the top of the next day’s date because there wasn’t enough space at the bottom of the previous day. There were no digital backups or other calendars to confirm what was right. That’s when we realized we had made a very real scheduling mistake.

We quickly scrambled, put our McDonald’s aside, gathered ourselves and pulled together the client’s materials as fast as we could. I was grateful I had prepared everything in advance, but we definitely moved straight from dinner into the appointment, quietly hoping the McDonald’s smell wasn’t too noticeable.

In the end, everything turned out fine. They’re still clients to this day, and we’ve actually had many laughs about it since.

The lesson was simple: always be fully prepared. Things can easily throw you off track, and waiting until the last minute for anything client-related isn’t worth the risk. Since then, my staff and I have been very careful with calendar coordination. We double- and triple-check everything, and we’re not afraid to ask, “Is that AM or PM?”

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

There is a quote that relates to this, which I’ll paraphrase: If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, let others help you. As an entrepreneur, it’s essential to work with people who bring talents, skills and passion that elevate and help bring a vision to life.

One person who has been especially important in my journey is Jean, my business partner from my first business as a financial advisor. She has completely opposite skills from mine. We embrace those differences, trust each other and rely on one another to uphold our shared commitment to the vision.

Her strengths and mine complement each other in a way that makes us stronger together. We also share core values around respecting clients, delivering high-quality work, taking a caring approach and building long-term relationships. I often say she is my right arm — I truly could not do it without her.

Early on in my career, I also had moments where others challenged my confidence. In my first year as an advisor, someone told me I wasn’t going to make it. Instead of letting that define me, I used it as motivation to stay grounded in what I believed I could offer. That mindset stayed with me throughout my professional journey. Eventually, I was recognized in “The Women at the Top,” which featured 23 top female advisors in the industry.

Extensive research suggests that “purpose-driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your organization started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?

I trademarked the name Nwyze because it represented exactly what I hoped people would gain — a “new vision” for themselves, or a new perspective that supports growth and transformation.

At its core, the purpose has always been to help people find meaning beneath the surface of everyday life. My goal is to offer a journey that is deeply individual to each person. That journey begins with disrupting current thinking, reframing perspective and rebuilding something more meaningful and expansive.

Ultimately, it’s about helping people open their minds, get unstuck and reimagine their world. The content I create is organized around those themes, and my keynotes center on the idea that introspection is a strategic tool. When we slow down and allow space for answers to emerge, higher-quality insight naturally follows.

Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion. Can you share with our readers a story from your own experience about how you lead your team during uncertain or difficult times?

In one role, I was asked to help rethink how financial planning services could become more digitally accessible. The company was focused on the wrong comparison set — looking at traditional competitors with similar deliverables.

I was asked to lead a strategic think tank on the challenge. I used introspection and open-ended questions to surface deeper insights and reframe the problem. Eventually, the team realized the real competition wasn’t other advisors — it was Google and Alexa. People were increasingly turning to those platforms to answer financial questions, which was shifting advisors out of the equation.

That realization reframed the problem entirely. Once we changed the question, we changed the answers and ultimately uncovered more viable solutions.

Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the motivation to continue through your challenges? What sustains your drive?

There have been moments when I felt overwhelmed and questioned whether I could continue. What has always brought me back is asking a bigger question and sitting with it, rather than rushing to an answer.

When I allow space for introspection, it opens up new possibilities I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. I stay with those questions until intuition and experience come together to form something more meaningful or aligned. Once I reconnect to that sense of purpose, my drive returns naturally.

I remember returning from a two-week trip to Italy after achieving a major business goal and feeling unexpectedly unsettled. Instead of feeling like I had “arrived,” I kept asking myself, “I built it. Now what?”

Over time, I realized it wasn’t an ending, but an opening. Sitting with those questions was uncomfortable, but necessary. I slowed down, resisted quick answers and allowed a new direction to emerge. Looking back, I see that I was using introspection to disrupt my thinking, reframe my perspective and rebuild my goals in a new way.

What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during challenging times?

A leader is never just a title. Leaders are human, with deep and complex identities. They carry fear, hope and perspective — just like those they lead. And all of that inevitably shows up in how they lead.

Great leadership starts with self-awareness. A leader must first understand what they are carrying internally before they can effectively guide others. Everything a leader does influences the culture, the people and the outcomes around them. This is often where the work I do through Nwyze begins — helping leaders see themselves more clearly so they can lead more intentionally.

Effective leadership is about intentionally lifting others into the vision you are creating, not simply directing them. It’s not enough to say, “Go fix this.” Leaders must help people see possibilities and build genuine buy-in.

They also need to practice introspection — not only about themselves, but also about the direction of the organization. Without that pause and reflection, leadership becomes reactive. Strong leaders slow down enough to consider risk, team needs and long-term direction that moves beyond the present moment.

When the future seems so uncertain, what is the best way to boost morale? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team?

A leader’s role is to remind people how and why they matter — that they are something to someone in some way. A leader doesn’t need to solve everything alone, but they do need to inspire by recognizing the talent and value already within the team. When people feel seen and valued, they’re more likely to find purpose and momentum, even in uncertain times.

Part of boosting morale is helping teams reframe disruption as an opportunity. So instead of feeling stuck, they begin to see pathways forward. Challenges and uncertainty often contain the seeds of growth if we are willing to see them differently.

What is the best way to communicate difficult news to one’s team and customers?

As an advisor, I often had to communicate market losses that were outside of my control. My role was to help clients feel supported while also guiding them through risk. I did this by being transparent about the situation, while also reassuring them that I was in it with them. I would often say, “I’m here. We will get through this together.”

How can a leader make plans when the future is so unpredictable?

While the external world is unpredictable, a leader’s job is to create steadiness internally. For me, that means returning to core values as an anchor and really living from them. My core values include maintaining a hopeful perspective, feeling productive, seeking discovery and learning and supporting the best expression of myself and others.

When leaders are clear on their values and return to them regularly, they are better able to navigate uncertainty with clarity and consistency.

Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?

Don’t forget who you are or who you serve. Every organization exists to provide value to someone — staying grounded in that keeps decisions aligned and meaningful.

Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses make during difficult times? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?

One common mistake is trying to solve challenges by simply doing more — spending more, working harder or pushing people to exhaustion.

Another is becoming derailed by disruption instead of seeing it as information. Being stuck is not a failure; it’s a signal. If leaders slow down and reflect, they can often uncover what the situation is really asking for.

Businesses also tend to default to reactive decision-making instead of slowing down to find better answers. What’s often missing is introspection as a strategic tool. When leaders pause and create space for clarity, higher-quality decisions emerge.

Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should do to lead effectively during uncertain and turbulent times?

1. Feeling stuck is a signal, not a failure

When leaders treat disruption as information rather than failure, it becomes an opportunity to identify what’s missing and gain clarity for better outcomes. During COVID, everything stopped. The disruption was real. But innovation emerged quickly. Zoom and hybrid work, grocery delivery and telehealth all scaled rapidly. Many of those shifts are still part of everyday life, born out of that period of turbulence.

2. Broaden your landscape of awareness

To grow, you have to see more. Where leaders place their attention becomes especially important during disruption. Attention is a form of currency. You can spend it or invest it, and what you focus on expands. The key question is whether your attention is expanding in a way that supports the outcomes you want. Companies can fail when attention becomes too narrow. Blockbuster dismissed streaming because it believed it would threaten in-store revenue. That lack of expansive thinking meant they missed how customer behavior was changing, and ultimately, they were overtaken by Netflix.

3. Balance action with reflection through introspection

Leaders need to know when to act quickly and when to slow down and create space for introspection as a strategic tool. Without that pause, organizations tend to default to reactive decision-making, which limits insight and long-term clarity. In Blockbuster’s case, they remained reactive and missed the opportunity to reflect more deeply on how their customers were evolving.

4. Close the gap between what is and what could be

The art of introspection closes the gap between what you see and what you can become. Your impact is not an “it”. It’s a “you.” It travels with you and influences everything you do. When leaders understand this at both a personal and organizational level, they unlock greater clarity, leverage and alignment in how they lead and build.

5. Re-anchor to core values to stay aligned in uncertainty

In turbulent times, leaders need to return to their core values more often. Most people have three or more core values that quietly guide their decisions. Becoming aware of them and noticing how they show up in leadership, culture and operations creates greater alignment and stability. One of my core values is hopefulness. When I notice I’ve lost access to that feeling for too long, it becomes a signal to slow down and re-anchor. While building Nwyze, I’ve had to re-anchor to my values multiple times. One realization was that I was building an expression-based business. Self-expression is one of my core values, and once I recognized that, it informed both my platform and my long-term vision.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Arthur Schopenhauer once said, “Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.”

This resonates deeply with me because it reflects the idea that we can become more when we see more. It aligns directly with the work I do through Nwyze — helping people expand perspective and unlock transformation.

How can our readers further follow your work?

People can learn more at Nwyze.com and connect with me on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!

Anne Machesky Of Nwyze On Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Uncertain &… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.