AMBIGUITY IS NIRVANA FOR LEADERS

Do not follow where the path may lead.  Go instead where there is no path, and leave a trail

Rens Afferopeolis

One of my global clients is midway through a major regional reorganization in Europe. Before the reorganization, which was announced a year ago, all functions and operations reported to a country manager (of which there were quite a few in Europe) who was ultimately accountable for the full P&L.  All sales, marketing, supply chain, and production is being integrated into one European structure with only one sales force, one supply chain, one production capacity, and, for the most part, one P&L. This initiative has been thought about for years and is strategically the right thing to do in that region and for the company globally. It is also well supported and endorsed, at least intellectually, by the European leaders. What they didn’t fully anticipate was the degree of chaos needing to be managed and the strategic leadership required in such a transition.  

While new reporting relationships were part of this game-changing announcement a year ago, the majority of details were still to be worked out along the way. While progress has been made, a year later processes are still evolving and many details are ongoing and need resolution. One of the most significant challenges is that the senior leaders in Europe have now been shifting from the initial strategy of a “follow us” message to the troops, to a clear message of “We don’t have the answers. Don’t wait for us. Take charge of your situations and we will support you. Be empowered”. This is something previously unheard of in this company as they have realized that empowered leaders’ equals speed of implementation.  The new rules are not clear, the long-term roadmap not immediately apparent, and the right actions not always certain. Isn’t this the perfect climate for leadership?  David Spangler, a spiritual thought leader from Findhorn, Scotland, and whose work I read back in the days of my hippie-dom, once said “Leadership appears in one who has clarity in the moment” and not necessarily the one(s) who have positional authority. When the path is not clear, waiting and hesitation does not make it clearer. George Land, a noted thought leader on organizational change proposed that organizations that navigate change well do three things well: 

1. They know where they came from.
2. They know where they want to go.
3. They know how to learn quickly on the way. 

You thought I was going to say they know how to get there didn’t you? In transformation no one really knows completely “how to get there”. This state of ambiguity is nirvana for leaders as they can shape the future. In this environment leaders take charge and learn on the way and that gives others something and someone to follow.