There is an occupational hazard that comes with being a successful leader with a prized intellect – the kind that puts one in positions of power and responsibility. It is a skewed perception of reality that major business or life decisions can purely rely on gathering circumstantial data.
Yet when it comes to decisions with the highest stakes, this approach does not seem to give sufficient confidence or clarity. If one’s entire strategy is based on external data, then the moment there is an unknown variable, the whole thing falls apart. And life is full of unknown variables.
So how does one operate in the unknown, without deluding oneself?
Individual brushstrokes make a painting. Individual sentences form a book. Individual threads weave into a garment. Individual notes compile into a piece of music. Everywhere, it is the tiny things that come together to create the larger picture.
Yet we overlook this fact in our lives so often. Many times, the clarity we desire hides in the small and seemingly insignificant moments that are already available to us.
There is rarely a linear path from where one is, to their vision, that can be laid out upfront. Yet, leadership demands one to be a visionary without knowing the path to realising the vision.
Reconciling this dilemma is a common theme in my coaching conversations with business leaders. Our work together is in creating a subtractive space where they can access the signal amidst a sea of important sounding noise. There is no way for me as an external coach to tell what is signal and noise for the leader in their systems. So this requires an unlearning of their relationship with themselves, and their world, and opening up a new way of perceiving their reality.
While the way I write about this may sound philosophical, it shows up quite practically in our conversations: as a recognition that their never ending conflict with their counterpart–stalling their vision for a unified business unit–is happening because they are still interacting with a version of that person they made up a story about several years ago. Or that their inability to go for a walk–sabotaging their vision for a healthier lifestyle–was because they are too busy in their minds rather than being productive.
It is in these moments that the simple clarity of the present reveals itself – as a freedom from the story that looked like reality just a moment ago, or the freedom of physical movement that was bound in intellectual stimulation.
When the internal noise drops, the unknown turns from a problem to hedge against into an emergent possibility, and the future can be welcomed rather than faced.
