Changing Our Prescription

Gary Burnison is CEO of Korn Ferry and the author of Love, Hope & Leadership: A Special Edition.

Dizzy and disoriented, hazy and headaches. It was back in my college days, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on.

When I confided in a friend, he didn’t say a word at first—just walked across the room and picked up a deck of cards left on the table. He held one card up. “What is it?”

“Three of diamonds,” I said confidently.

“It’s the eight of hearts,” he told me. “You need to get your eyes checked.”

Sitting in my car after leaving the optometrist several days later, I couldn’t believe what a difference a pair of glasses made. Everything was so clear, so precise. The most startling—brake lights. Glasses off, they were blobs of red. Glasses on, amazing crispness.

It was as if the world had opened up to me through a completely new lens.

I had to ask myself—what have I been missing?

Today, the world can be blurry. It’s easy to feel a little dazed and confused.

Our firm is hearing this sentiment in virtually every conversation with leaders everywhere. And no wonder, with so much volatility—up, down, sideways. Elusive growth. Costs outstripping wages. And not only this economic environment, but socioeconomics—as differences overshadow commonalities.

It’s as if the world has turned upside down.

Or has it?

It’s an existential truth. As humans, we have always clung to our need for certainty. But the reality is, our state of being is uncertainty—which has always been disguised and clouded by our illusions of certainty.

That begs the question: Why does it feel so different right now—what aren’t we seeing? Perhaps it’s time for a new prescription.  

It’s a conversation I had just a few days ago with Stu Crandell, global leader of our firm’s CEO and Executive Assessment practice. “A new equilibrium needs to be established,” Stu told me. “That makes finding meaning an even bigger challenge for leaders right now. In fact, that’s the leadership challenge of 2025—and probably beyond.”

It starts with what we can change—what we can control and how we create opportunities for others amid the perception of chaos.

Velocity, not just strategy. It’s not just trying to strategically regain focus in a murky, upside-down world. We will never have complete clarity. But we can control the speed at which the organization moves. As leaders, we need to make sure the lyrics and the melody are in sync. In other words, we can’t just take people where we want to go. Rather, it’s all about meeting them where they are and taking them to another place—at the right pace. After all, strategy is not just direction—it’s velocity.

Opportunity. Even more important is opportunity. This week, I was having a brainstorming session with senior leaders of our firm and our board. We discussed how unique experiences have molded each of us. That’s when one of our board members, Angel Martinez, offered an astute observation: “Humans don’t just fit together on paper.” Indeed, we coalesce through challenges and opportunities. As leaders, we can’t lose sight of the fact that we’re all in the opportunity business. The fact is, almost every change, inflection point, and moment of crisis we’ve ever seen has ushered in opportunity. And where there is an abundance of opportunities, we can all exceed our potential.

The landscape will constantly change. But our destination is always driven by our “why”—our own overarching purpose, our values, and what’s most important to us.

That’s how we make our way—from the unknown to the known, from fear to hope.

I can remember like it was yesterday, though many years have passed. My son, Jack, was five years old and had to undergo surgery. In that sterile, white pre-op room, the gravity of it hit when the nurse put the needle in Jack’s arm.

His eyes wide, Jack turned to me and asked, “Daddy, will everything be OK?”

No matter how much sheer fear I felt inside, I forced confidence into my voice. “Yes. It’s going to be OK.”

Flash forward several years—our roles reversed. This time, I was the one in the hospital. Just before I went into surgery, Jack—who had grown up strong and healthy—squeezed my arm and said those same words to me: “Dad, everything is going to be OK.”

From one cycle to the next, one generation to the other, the world is—and always has been—an uncertain place. But we cannot lose sight of what binds us together.

Indeed, that’s the clarity we gain when we change our prescription—and put on our glasses.

Read more This Week in Leadership articles