A Compass, Not Just a Roadmap

Driving positive progress despite uncertainty

Uncertainty is, well, certain, and therefore knowing how to navigate it with badassery is a helpful skill. Uncertainty is not just about negative change. It also comes along with new opportunities.

Driving positive progress despite uncertainty requires the ability to respond to the unexpected, keep going despite changes in plans, and confidently pave a new path from time to time. One road map or plan alone does not enable individuals and teams to adapt and iterate as needed as the world changes. What’s needed to progress despite the unknown is a higher-order sense of direction and the confidence to follow it.

I’ve heard it called ‘candle power’. That’s what one of the greatest leaders I’ve personally known told me I needed to have. He said, “candle power is when your light shines bright, even when the wind blows harder”. It was a visual description of leadership courage that stuck with me, glowing in the dust and shining a path clearly in a cloudy situation.

I approached him for guidance in a difficult situation. I was 27, in my first Chair of the Board role of a non-profit, and was dealing with messy dynamics, sharp personalities, and a deep sense of duty to clean things up. Many had enabled the situation over time, albeit sensing (or even knowing) it wasn’t best or right.

I was uncomfortable letting things go on just because they simply had already been. I remembered a quote we used to teach managers in the restaurant industry, “to permit is to promote”. I viewed silence, turning a blind eye, or rationalizing normalcy as directly enabling. That thought made me uncomfortable enough to invite the discomfort of making changes where others had not. I didn’t know what I would do or how I would do it (no road map), but my north star was clear: doing the right thing for the right reasons and making things better than I found them (even if only to sleep soundly at night).

My compass has been strong for decades: help people realize they are capable of more than they know and do the right things for the right reasons. If I’m not doing those things, I’m off course. If I am doing those things, I’m on purpose. That may take on many forms: mentoring, investing, hiring, coaching, firing, building a brand or business with a team, or more. The day-to-day (the roadmap) changes constantly, but the compass direction stays the same. It pulls me up out of a cloudy moment, it helps me seem clear when others feel lost, it allows me to navigate constant uncertainty, unexpected opportunities, or challenges with confidence. It also feeds the courage to do something completely new. I use my purpose as a compass and as a gut-check. It helps me have comfort with the certainty of uncertainty.

Uncertainty (More good than bad, but often scary either way)

It feels a bit obvious to write about navigating uncertainty since few things are actually certain or absolutely known, and therefore, isn’t uncertainly just… life?

The answer is yes, but just because uncertainty is everywhere doesn’t mean that we all use best practices to make the most of it. In addition, the peaks and valleys of uncertainty and the radical nature of unexpected situations and dynamics feel totally next level these days. It feels fitting to talk about it and share a few tips. I hope it helps even one person think about how to show up and make the most of the opportunities and challenges of our time, in our businesses, and in our lives.

Roadmaps

Roadmaps aren’t bad. In fact, we need them, but at the rate of change in our surroundings and the world, they become dated and irrelvant, fast. I wish we had a Waze for real-time human decision making: a map that changes real-time with input from all around us. When I think about it, staying close to our teams, customers and communities can act as a sort of real-time-updated GPS, it is not solely sufficient to guide us in the world of constant shifts.

In addition, when the leader isn’t in the room, and the team deals with non-stop changes, what do they do? It’s not possible to just ask the leader every time something varies from the road map or plan. Having a compass in addition to the road map is more powerful, so people can keep heading in the right direction despite hurdles, roadblocks, or unforeseen issues.

Compass

While the roadmap is our plan for the what and when, the compass is our set of values, our sense of purpose, our why, and our commitment to how we will or will not do things. It’s always a good time to make sure you have your compass set, that your team knows what that is and can leverage it at any moment to make better decisions, take advantage of an unexpected opportunity, and navigate challenges. A few ways to do that:

• Values: they are the ultimate north star for us as individuals and for teams and companies and tend to center on “how”

• Purpose: a more “why” focused version of what we are here to do and why we exist

• Guardrails & frameworks: There is freedom in a framework, but a path without borders leads to scattering. Some structure is needed to help individuals and teams make sound decisions and move forward.

• Feedback loops: What are people dealing with? Is the compass clear? Is the road map out of date? Check-in often and respond with the tools to help people navigate their own paths toward the greater goal.

• Regularly recalibrate and reground in these things. People change. Teams change. The environment changes.

Whether it’s my plan for fitness (that easily gets derailed), my business plan for the year or goals for the team for the month, these reminders help me stay “on purpose” and keep going (and even find wild success) despite uncertainty and challenges. I hope they do the same for you.

Quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., “…the time is always ripe to do what’s right”. Doing what’s right is one example of a powerful value, used as a north star, that can be our compass through a time where a road map is simply not sufficient. May your compass direction be strong and help you make the most of the exciting unknown in front of us all.