“Clarity of vision will compensate for uncertainty in planning. If you are clear and confident about the destination, you can handle a few detours along the way. If you are unclear about the destination of the journey, even the most sophisticated, well-thought-through strategy is useless.” (from “Next Generation Leader” by Andy Stanley.)
This quote from Stanley may be the truest words I have found as Hamlin Collegiate travels down the “transformation road.” To be sure, our leadership team has worked tirelessly to develop a strategic plan, using the P-20 Model for Student Success as our guide, but what sustains us and fortifies us is the vision of what could be if we can collectively “see” our destination. The old adage, “Pencil in your plans. Write your vision in ink,” resonates with our leadership team as we strive for what could be.
Stanley offers four practical suggestions for enhancing clarity in the midst of uncertainty.
Determine your certainty quotient.This is important to know. If in looking back you determine that your best decisions have been made at the 75 percent mark, for instance, then that is your certainty quotient. Waiting for greater certainty may cause you to miss an opportunity.Depending upon your personality, no amount of information may move you past a particular degree of certainty. As you think back over your decisions, you will get a general feel for when you operate best.
Express your uncertainty with confidence. By expressing your lack of certainty, you give the leaders around you permission to do the same thing. You send them an important message: In this organization it is okay not to know. It is not okay to pretend to know when you don’t.As a leader, it is imperative that you know what the people around you know and don’t know. A culture that encourages this kind of honesty and transparency will be a culture that fosters the free exchange of ideas. It will be a learning organization. On the other hand, in an organization where everybody is always expected to know, nobody will ask. When we quit asking, we quit learning.
Seek counsel.Leadership is not about making decisions on your own. It is about owning the decisions once you make them.If you don’t know, ask. If you aren’t certain, find out what others are thinking. Consensus builds confidence in the face of uncertainty. When those we respect give us a nod of approval, there is an immediate surge of confidence.
Measure your success by the scoreboard, not the playbook. The goal is to win, not to run specific plays. Leaders, like coaches, are forced to abandon their plans in order to deliver on the vision. The uncertainty of the landscape will require constant reassessment of your plans. The leader who refuses to scrap or revise his plan rarely reaches his destination.
My final takeaway from this good read is this: Uncertainty will not be your undoing as a leader. However, your inability to give a clear directive in the midst of uncertainty might very well be the thing that takes you out or causes you to plateau early in your career.
Stanley, Andy. Next Generation Leader (p. 98). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
