When Ambiguity Abounds

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

“Rocks are hard, water is wet, and the sky is blue.”

When I heard these words just the other day, my first thought was—if only leadership was that simple! But it’s not.

No doubt all of us probably feel that over the past few years we’ve experienced more change than we’ve seen in our lifetime. But no one has cornered the market on change. And ambiguity knows no timeline or time limit.

It does, however, require perspective in the moment.

Just like those hash marks on the door jamb. When my children were young, I recorded their progress over the years as they topped three feet and four feet. Then suddenly, one day I looked, and everyone had shot up to five feet and beyond. I had to ask myself—when and how did that happen?

These markings are also a reminder for all of us that leadership, just like life, is not linear. As our firm has found, based on assessments of millions of executives, 90% of the problems we face are, in fact, ambiguous. And, on top of that, with greater leadership responsibility comes even more ambiguity.

None of us have the luxury of being able to wait around for all the information—or even most of it—before making a decision or taking action. It simply doesn’t work that way.

So, if we can’t control it, how do we roll with it?

We recognize. As our firm’s research indicates, when we’re immersed in ambiguity, we need to take ourselves out of the moment. It’s like tapping Google Earth—zooming out to sky view from street view. Context can be liberating.  

We realize. We don’t need to become visionaries. But we do need to accurately perceive today in order to predict tomorrow. It’s not a question of half full or half empty, but rather how many milliliters are actually in the glass.

We visualize. Rocks can be lava, water can be steam, and the sky can be gray. So, we visualize. Three months, six months, a year in the future—just imagine. Where do we want to be? Who do we want to be? Who can help us get there—and who can we help?

We actualize. Only when we see our vision of the future can we actualize our place in it.

On a personal note, during the depths of Covid—one of the most uncertain times of our generation—two recipients of my regular messages shared wisdom that uplifted me then and still guides me now.

In the spirit of Spanish poet Antonio Machado, we make our path as we walk it: “Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking …”

And, from Edward Everett Hale, a 19^th century social reformer and minister: “I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”

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