Like many people, March of 2020 wasn’t my best month for sleep. I was anxious about the quickly-spreading coronavirus, both as a husband and father, of course, but also as the head of a business. How would we adapt to working from home? How would we keep our products running and customers satisfied when no one could say what the next month held?

I didn’t have answers. No one did. I was as nervous and on-edge as everyone else. But what I had to figure out, fast, was how much of that to admit to my team.

Being totally candid risked stoking fear—the opposite of what I wanted in an already stressful time. Being too confident would surely ring false.

That period taught me a lot about being a leader, and one lesson in particular has stuck with me: that there is such a thing as the right amount of transparency. Here’s how to find it.

Undersharing Vs. Oversharing

We are living through uncertain times . But to what extent should leaders voice their thoughts out loud?

Oversharing has obvious pitfalls. A leader who is constantly processing their worries out loud is liable to spook everyone else. Without ready answers, it just creates more anxiety. This isn’t to say you should never confide in a trusted right-hand, but on the whole, the crew does not want to hear that the ship’s captain is flying blind.

Personally, I’m more prone to be on the other end of the spectrum—undersharing. For a long time, I thought saying nothing was better than broadcasting false information or half-baked ideas. The problem with that approach is that silence creates space for worry and fear. When people sense that something is amiss, they rarely assume the best.

“Hiding bad news is virtually a reflex in most organizations, but thoughtful leaders recognize that speaking up early and truthfully is a vital strategy in a fast-moving crisis,” wrote psychological safety expert Amy C. Edmondson in Harvard Business Review. I’d add to that by saying that even keeping bad news close to the vest can be a problem, even if well-intentioned. People can handle bad news. Where trust starts to wane is sensing that bad news exists, and that they’re not being told it.

How To Be Reassuring Without Being Phony

Feelings spread quickly. Researchers refer to this as “emotional contagion,” in which people unconsciously absorb and mirror the moods of those around them.

Leaders’ emotions have an outsized impact on their employees, as Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee explored in Harvard Business Review back in 2001. The reason for this is what’s known as the “open-loop” nature of our emotional centers, the limbic system. Whereas closed-loop systems regulate themselves, open-loop systems depend on external sources—we look to other people to determine our moods. “Our limbic system’s open-loop design lets other people change our very physiology and hence, our emotions,” they write.

This is especially true when it comes to leadership. “The Courage Gap” author Margie Warrell explains that there are two types of leaders—”thermometers,” who absorb stressors and reflect them back on their teams; and “thermostats,” who hold the emotional temperature steady regardless of external conditions.

I’m sure you can guess which style is more effective. But how to portray strength and calm when you may not actually feel either?

What I’ve learned is that steadiness doesn’t come from something as flimsy as your mood. It comes from having a plan. In times of uncertainty, the answer isn’t to adopt an overly rosy attitude, it’s to demonstrate that someone is still at the helm. This comes in three parts: Share what you know, what you’ve decided to do, and when you plan to share more. As Goleman and his co-authors write, a leader’s mood needn’t project fake cheer, because “optimistic, sincere, and realistic will do.”

Polls regularly show that employees want more transparency from their organizations. But really, true openness comes from conversations, and it’s important to give your employees the space to talk about what’s really on their minds.

Fostering a culture of psychological safety means people should feel free to ask questions that are niggling at them. This is especially true in times of uncertainty. If you don’t already have forums in place for open discussion, create them. It could mean setting aside time after a company-wide all hands, or letting them know you have an open door policy and that they are welcome to approach you with concerns. I find a happy medium is checking in personally with each of our cross-functional teams, a setting in which I know everyone feels comfortable.

However you structure it, what matters is that you respond with openness. Your teams decide how honest they can be by watching how you respond to honesty. When someone raises a delicate concern, thank them. Answer as directly as you can, and if you don’t have the answer yet, tell them when you will.

There will always be times when running a business where things get difficult, uncertain or downright chaotic. By projecting calm, openness and having a plan, your team will trust that they are in capable hands.