Trusting the voice within: How faith anchors those who lead

Jessica Rogers looks at the role of faith in leadership and how it can provide inner strength and direction for leaders whenever times get hard

I’ve come to understand that how we lead outwardly is deeply influenced by what keeps us steady on the inside, yet this is rarely discussed in leadership development. We talk about strategy, capability, presence – these are all important – but we often sidestep the deeper question: what is it that holds you when the ground shifts?

In my work as an executive coach, I regularly speak with leaders about trusting their instincts – leaning into their gut when the data isn’t clear, finding their inner compass when the path isn’t obvious. What I didn’t fully realise, even to myself, was where that instinct came from for me personally.

It took a significant life crisis to bring it into focus.

When the ground shifted beneath me, what held me was my faith – not in a dramatic or performative way but quietly and steadily – like an anchor that had always been there, that I hadn’t needed to name until I truly needed it to hold.

What I have witnessed, across more than 17 years of coaching, is that the leaders who navigate uncertainty with the most grace are almost always drawing on something deeper than strategy. They possess an internal steadiness – a grounding that doesn’t depend on external conditions being right.

Faith, resilience and leading through adversity
Something has shifted in recent years. Across my leadership programmes, participants are increasingly open about how their beliefs shape how they lead – not just in theory, but in everyday practice. People share how prayer is their morning anchor; how faith guides their decisions under pressure; and how a sense of higher purpose keeps them going when things get hard. With hybrid working dissolving the old boundary between home and professional life, more of who we are – including our faith – has become visible and I think that’s a good thing.

The research on faith and resilience supports what I’ve been seeing in practice. During the pandemic, studies found that people who drew on spirituality or religious faith as a coping mechanism experienced significantly lower levels of psychological distress and were better able to maintain hope and purpose when others were struggling. A 2022 study in Frontiers in Psychology found that religious and spiritual belief predicted better coping and mental health outcomes during COVID-19, with faith acting as a meaningful buffer against distress – especially during prolonged uncertainty.

For leaders, this matters enormously. The ability to hold a team steady when things feel uncertain doesn’t come from having all the answers. It comes from having something to stand on and, for many of the most grounded, effective leaders I have worked with, that something has a name.

What this looks like in practice
When I talk about faith in a leadership context, I am not suggesting that everyone needs to share my beliefs or adopt the same practices. When I speak of my own faith, I mean my Christian faith – a trust in God’s presence and plan, even when I cannot see it. When I speak of faith more broadly, I mean whatever it is that gives you that settled, grounded sense that things will be okay, that you are not navigating this alone, that there is a bigger story at play.

For some people that is prayer. For others, it is a deep trust in community, in nature or in something they might simply call “the universe”. I have worked with leaders who would describe themselves as entirely non-religious, and yet they possess a profound inner steadiness. They have found their anchor, even if they have not named it as faith. What unites them is not doctrine; it is a relationship with something beyond the immediate and the visible.

Having a strong internal grounding is a key quality for any leader. It influences how you make choices when things get tough; how you support your team when things are uncertain; and how you keep showing up – with kindness, honesty and hope – even on the hardest days.

In recent years, as I have become more open about where my own steadiness comes from, something unexpected has happened: the conversations have deepened; I have connected more authentically with people who share a similar grounding; and I have been able to offer something meaningful to those who perhaps hadn’t considered it before – not by pushing a particular perspective, but because naming it honestly seems to give others permission to do the same.

The leaders who hold their teams steadiest in a storm are rarely the ones who have all the answers. They are the ones who have learnt to trust something beyond what is immediately visible. They have done the quiet inner work. They have named the anchor. And when the waves come, they hold on to it.

JESSICA ROGERS

Leadership coach and author of Healing & Hopeful. Visit www.jessicavrogers.co.uk