Like many companies this year, Amazon announced major layoffs. The problem is not only smaller teams are now left, but there’s also scattered attention. After a big cut, the instinct across any organization is to brace. People narrow their focus to survival. Leaders hedge. Initiatives retreat into silos. That instinct is human, but it quietly drags performance. The promise is that it is fixable. With the people that remain, companies can quickly reset culture for speed, clarity and ownership.

Look at the signals from the market. Amazon’s latest round of cuts was framed primarily as a cultural reset and a push to remove layers so work sits closer to owners, even as revenue grew. The message was less about short-term savings and more about how the company needs to operate in order to move faster.

It’s a telling shift: The robots weren’t supposed to come for the managers, but AI has now arrived for the middle management.

Neuroscience shows that uncertainty activates the brain’s conflict detection center as it notices the dissonance and demands resolution. If fear takes the wheel, attention narrows and survival mode takes over: We default to control, defensiveness and siloed thinking. One of the most primal drivers behind this shift is fear of rejection while social risk registers like physical threat. But when leaders create even a sliver of safety, that same neural signal can become an opening into a moment to shift from self-preservation to possibility. It’s not the uncertainty itself that defines what happens next. It’s what we do with our attention.

Here is the lever most leaders underestimate. In moments of flux, we can call this the spotlight, a beam of attention that unconsciously locks onto self: Am I safe? Am I next? How do I protect my turf? That inward focus does not just live in the C-suite. It shows up in directors clinging to roadmaps that no longer matter, in managers micromanaging for control and in teams optimizing for optics over outcomes. The result is fragmented effort.

The shift is to teach every person that the spotlight is movable and it was never meant to lock onto the self. Attention is a choice. When leaders name the fear and point their focus toward purpose, customers and teammates, the culture gets quieter and smarter. Conversations become more candid. Ideas move across boundaries. People share insights that used to be hoarded. With deliberate focus, you get more momentum because the work is anchored to a single, vivid goal.

This isn’t a call for platitudes. It’s a shift in how you see your workforce, and how you see this moment. If Amazon treats every remaining leader as an owner of outcomes, and not a guardian of headcounts, they could be invited to declare, in plain language, what they stand for. This includes how their work supports the one story the company is telling right now. When leaders model this posture, teams stop performing for appearances and start building for impact. The signal they want everywhere is simple: We are here to create value together.

Companies should pair that shift in focus with better tools. AI can reduce drudgery, surface patterns they’d miss and compress cycle times. Used well, it gives smaller teams leverage. Used as a silver bullet, it disappoints. The research is clear: productivity gains from AI come not from automation alone, but from leaders who intentionally redesign how work and collaboration happen.

CEOs can start by narrating the turn. Say what changed, what will not change and why they believe their remaining team can win. Then they should be present in rooms where work is shaped, not just reported. If they’re a functional leader, they must stop managing for proof and start leading for progress. They should ask questions that move attention from themself to service. And if they’re a manager, they can act like a coach who clears friction and connects people to the mission so they can do the best work of their careers.

Cuts create a vacuum of certainty. Companies in 2025 can fill it with command and caution, or with clarity and connection. If they choose the latter, people learn to move their spotlight from fear to purpose as trust increases, speed returns and a smaller workforce becomes a stronger one. AI will help, but company culture will decide.

Amy Eliza Wong is an advisor to Silicon Valley companies, author and founder of Always on Purpose.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.