I have never been great with directions.
When my son was a toddler sitting in his booster seat in the back of the car, he would confidently tell me which way to turn when I got flustered and unsure.
Imagine that — a tiny human calmly navigating while I was second-guessing every intersection.
Some people just seem wired with an internal compass. He clearly did not get that from me.
Over the years, I’ve realized my relationship with direction has shaped more than how I travel. It has shaped how I lead. And I know many leaders quietly wrestle with the same thing — making decisions and moving forward without complete clarity.
In fact, I think I know exactly where my own sense of direction comes from. My mom often tells the story about when my dad took me with him on a quick errand to the post office. What was supposed to be a short trip turned into four hours. He got completely lost. She was home with my baby brother worried about what might have happened.
Somewhere along the way, I adopted a similar relationship with direction. Not just on roads and highways, but in life too.
There have been many seasons where I have not felt one hundred percent clear about where I was headed. Times when I made what felt like the right turn only to realize later it meant recalculating. Times when I wondered if progress would lead to a breakthrough or simply a U-turn.
If you are a leader, you probably know this feeling.
Today we have incredible tools to help us find our way. GPS. Strategy frameworks. Leadership models. Data dashboards. AI. Advisors and coaches. All of these can help us move faster. They can reduce friction and provide guidance when the path feels uncertain. And yet, tools are not perfect.
Even now, when I travel to a client’s city filled with tall buildings and unfamiliar streets, my GPS will occasionally fail me. I will confidently start walking only to realize a few minutes later that I am heading in the wrong direction. Sometimes the signal drops. Sometimes the map spins. Sometimes I simply misinterpret what I see.
Leadership is no different.
You can have a beautiful strategic plan and still feel unsure. You can have access to more information than ever before and still wrestle with doubt. You can be surrounded by smart people and still need to make a decision without full clarity. The myth that great leaders always know the exact direction keeps many talented people stuck.
Where in your leadership might you be waiting for perfect clarity before taking the next step?
For years I tried to fix my lack of directional confidence in very practical ways. I challenged myself to get better. I would hear my mom’s voice in my head reminding me that streets run north and south and avenues run east and west. It is a grid. It should be simple. Some days that helped and other days it made things more confusing. Kind of like leadership advice.
Over time, my focus shifted. Instead of obsessing over always knowing the precise route, I began practicing something more important — trusting that clarity often comes after we begin moving.
Directionally, I might know I need to go that way. Not with perfect certainty. Not with a fully mapped path. Just with a quiet internal nudge.
So I step forward.
Sometimes the GPS locks in and confirms I am exactly where I need to be and sometimes I need to adjust. Occasionally, I have to turn around completely. None of that means I am lost. It means I am learning.
One of the most defining moments of “moving before I was fully clear” came when I made the decision to leave corporate.
For most of my career, I never imagined I would step away from that world. I loved leading teams, the pace and the impact. My identity was deeply connected to being an executive.
But a serious health scare became the nudge that said, go that way.
Or maybe more accurately… take a left here.
I did not have a perfectly mapped path. I did not know exactly what my next chapter would look like. I only knew that staying where I was no longer felt aligned.
Over the past nine years since making that decision, the road has not always been clear. There have been unexpected turns. There have been U-turns. There have been moments of recalculating and there has also been so much growth, purpose, and joy.
I made a commitment to myself to keep the road open — to stay curious, to listen for new direction, and to trust that adjusting along the way was part of building a meaningful journey.
Leadership often asks us to do the same.
Modern leadership requires both external guidance and internal connection. We absolutely should use the tools available to us. They make the journey more efficient and often more effective. But we cannot outsource our intuition. We cannot silence the voice that tells us when something feels aligned or when a different path might serve our people better.
Intentional leadership is not about having every answer before you begin. It is about developing the self-awareness and courage to move forward while listening deeply.
When leaders learn to trust their inner compass, they give their teams permission to do the same. They create cultures where movement matters more than perfection and learning matters more than always being right.
If the path ahead feels unclear right now, here are three practices that can help:
Perhaps the most powerful shift for me has been making peace with imperfection. I may never be the person who can instantly orient herself in any city without help. I may still have moments where I second-guess a turn. I may still find myself walking a block or two in the wrong direction. And that is okay.
Because I trust that I will find my way.
Leadership is not about flawless navigation. It is about resilience. It is about adaptability. It is about the willingness to keep going even when the signal drops or the map spins. The practice is not just about knowing where north is. It is about strengthening your inner compass so you can move with intention even when the path is unclear.
I am still learning. Still recalculating. Still listening.
It is not perfect.
But I am getting better. And that feels like exactly the right direction.
If you are navigating uncertainty in your leadership right now, you don’t have to figure it out alone. Coaching can help you strengthen your inner compass, build confidence in decision-making, and lead with greater intention. If this message resonates, I would love to connect and explore what direction might look like for you.
We’re in a moment unlike anything most leaders have ever experienced. Technology, especially AI, is moving faster than our structures, our policies, and honestly… our comfort zones.
Organizations are racing to capture the benefits of efficiency, insights, and productivity. CEOs are pushing for acceleration, eager to stay competitive. Teams are ready to experiment, innovate, and learn.
And then there’s the leader who unintentionally slows everything down.
Not because they want to, and not because they don’t see the opportunity. More often, it’s because their leadership instincts were built for a different era, one that valued certainty, caution, and control. Those instincts once made them effective. Today, they can hold leaders back at the exact moment their organizations need momentum.
This tension is real, and I see it in many rooms I work in. Leaders are being asked to empower their teams and unleash new technology, while also protecting the business from risks we’re still trying to understand.
It’s a delicate balance and a harsh reality that everything around us is changing, and leaders must change too. The leadership behaviors that once made us successful are not the behaviors that will carry us forward.
And that’s where unlearning comes in.
Insights from the Stanford Digital Economy Lab’s Canaries in the Coal Mine highlight just how much the ground beneath us is shifting. For the first time in a long time, workers in their 40s and beyond are being hired at faster rates than early-career talent.
This trend is emerging because AI is absorbing the task-heavy, entry-level responsibilities that used to serve as foundational training grounds. Organizations now need people with judgment, critical thinking, and the capacity to navigate complexity—skills that come from real-world experience.
But, here’s the nuance … experience only creates impact when leaders are willing to rethink and relearn. Those who cling tightly to the leadership patterns that once defined their success may find themselves unintentionally creating friction where momentum is needed most.
I worked with a leader recently who faced this head-on. For years, she was known for her ability to anticipate risks, manage details meticulously, and ensure everything was buttoned up before moving forward. Her teams trusted her. Her results were strong. But as her company adopted AI-driven processes and began moving faster, those same strengths began slowing her team down. They hesitated to bring her ideas. They waited for her approval. They matched their pace to her comfort level rather than the pace the business needed.
In one coaching conversation, she said shared:
“I realized I was protecting the organization from risks that no longer mattered—and exposing us to risks I didn’t even see.”
That was the moment she began unlearning. Not her wisdom, not her experience—but the beliefs that no longer supported the leader she was becoming. As she let go, her team stepped up. They moved faster. They innovated more. They felt trusted and empowered.
That’s the shift unlearning makes possible.
As leaders, we must learn to hold two truths at once:
On one side, we have a responsibility to manage risk thoughtfully.
AI does raise questions about governance, accuracy, bias, legality, and ethics. Leaders cannot ignore these concerns.
On the other side, we must move quickly enough that our organizations—and our people—don’t fall behind.
The greater risk now is standing still.
Leading today means balancing these two forces, not choosing one over the other. And that balance requires unlearning old habits, old rules, and old beliefs about what “good leadership” looks like.
The leadership playbook that worked even five years ago no longer fits the world we’re operating in. A few old rules you may recognize include:
Old Rule: Wait for perfect information before deciding.
New Reality: Perfect information doesn’t exist in a landscape that evolves daily.
Old Rule: Protect your team by avoiding risk.
New Reality: Protect them by empowering thoughtful experimentation.
Old Rule: Leaders should have the answers.
New Reality: Leaders must create environments where the best answers can emerge.
Old Rule: Slow and steady keeps you safe.
New Reality: Slow and steady can mean falling behind.
Unlearning isn’t about discarding wisdom—it’s about updating it for the world we’re leading in now.
Here are three practical steps leaders can take to begin unlearning in a productive and confidence-building way:
As AI accelerates and organizations adapt, the leaders who succeed will be those who can let go of outdated patterns, embrace new ways of working, and create environments where teams feel empowered to learn, experiment, and grow.
Experience still matters—but only when paired with adaptability.
Confidence still matters—but only when paired with curiosity.
Leadership still matters—but it must evolve.
AI is reshaping how we work. Unlearning is reshaping how we lead. And in the coming years, the leaders who can do both—thoughtfully and intentionally—will set the pace for everyone else.
Let’s explore how unlearning old patterns, empowering your teams, and leading with intention can help you navigate change with clarity and confidence.
Book time with me here and let’s talk about what’s possible.
It couldn’t be done. Until it was.
A client recently shared a story that’s stuck with me. He had approached a vendor with a challenge: an ambitious deliverable in an aggressive timeframe. The vendor replied with certainty, “It can’t be done.”
Their response wasn’t malicious. It came from experience, from the data they had, and from what had been possible in the past. But that’s the problem, isn’t it?
So many of us lead from what was—not what could be.
This leader, however, knew better. Just three years earlier, he had done something transformational for his company: he stood up a new data lake in six months, a record-setting achievement. It had never been done before in that organization—and yet, they did it.
Now, three years later, with even more complexity and constraints, he faced a similar challenge. The timeline? 60 days.
The verdict? “Impossible,” they said.
But here’s what he told me after his team pulled it off:
“We were ready. My team has been preparing for this moment. It wasn’t an option to not figure it out. The fact that we did it in 60 days? Stellar—but expected.”
That line hit me.
Stellar. But expected.
Because great leaders today are not waiting for all the information, the perfect plan, or ideal conditions. They’re readying themselves and their teams for what’s next—even when what’s next doesn’t yet exist. They're creating new possibilities by stepping forward with trust, not certainty.
We are now in a leadership era where the impossible is becoming the norm. Things are being done today that have never been done before—and at a breakneck pace.
In this world, leading from the rearview mirror won’t cut it. As Korn Ferry put it in a recent article, Beware the Black Swans, unpredictability has become our norm—and flexibility, adaptability, and intentionality are more important than ever.
Gone are the days when linear planning could carry you from idea to outcome. In today's reality, you often have to jump... and build the parachute on the way down.
The leaders who thrive in this space aren't necessarily the ones with the most knowledge or the best playbooks. They're the ones who lead with trust—in themselves, in their teams, and in their ability to figure it out along the way.
This brings us to something deeper. When the pace is fast and the stakes are high, you don’t have the luxury of overthinking, overplanning, or overdoing.
You have to shift from doing to being.
Instead?
The leader in this story didn’t need more time. He needed more clarity—on who to involve, what success looked like, and where certainty could be found, even in the unknown.
And from there, he moved.
Because confidence doesn't come from having all the answers—it comes from knowing you'll find them. Again and again.
If you're navigating complexity, leading transformation, or simply feeling the stretch of doing what’s never been done before, here are three shifts to help you BE the kind of leader today’s world demands:
If it feels like you’re being asked to do something that’s never been done before, you’re not alone.
That’s not a flaw in today’s leadership landscape—it’s the new normal.
The question isn’t: Can it be done?
It’s: Are you willing to trust yourself enough to go first?
You don’t need to have all the answers. But you do need to show up. Be present. Lead with clarity and conviction.
Because leadership today is less about having a map and more about becoming the compass.
If this message resonates with you, I invite you to take the next step. Let’s explore what it means to show up with more presence, more purpose, and more confidence—even in the unknown.
👉 Book a conversation with me to talk about how you or your team can lead with heart through whatever comes next.
Imagine this: You’re handed a major organizational change from the top. There’s little time to process it, even less time to plan, and yet you’re expected to rally your team, drive results, and maintain a positive culture. Sound familiar? If you’re like many leaders today, this scenario is all too common. The demands are relentless, the pace is overwhelming, and the stakes feel impossibly high.
How do you stay effective, committed, and aligned with your leadership role when you’re leading under pressure and the path forward is anything but clear?
I recall many instances in my corporate career where I found myself saying, “We could have avoided this negative impact if we had involved other leaders and taken more time.”
Unfortunately, during significant organizational change, where top-down decisions were made under immense pressure, it was no surprise that essential details often slipped through the cracks. Key individuals weren’t always informed in advance, leaving me and other leaders scrambling to address the oversight in real time. It was disappointing, but it was the reality we had to deal with.
In today’s workplace, where change is constant, and perfection is often unattainable, many are tasked with not just managing but thriving in the face of leading under pressure. The meticulous planning of the past isn’t always possible now, and leaders no longer have the luxury of time to plan every detail. However, leaders have the power to adapt, learn, and support their teams through these transitions. Resilience is critical, but it goes beyond that.
It’s about cultivating a mindset that allows you to navigate these challenges and lead with strength and clarity, even when the ground beneath you is shifting.
Here are five key actions to consider when faced with this reality, along with practical strategies to help you implement them:
As a leader, you’re uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between top-down decisions and your team’s realities. Your role goes beyond executing orders; it’s about connecting with your team, understanding their concerns, and guiding them through uncertainty with empathy and purpose. Your deep care for those you lead makes your leadership truly powerful.
There’s real meaning in this work. By staying committed to the greater good—your organization and your team—you’re doing more than just getting through the day. You’re shaping a culture of resilience, adaptability, and HEART. You’re showing your team that even in tough times, they have a leader who is intentional, connected, and unwavering in their support.
Leading under pressure isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about showing up, day after day, with a mindset that says, ‘We can do this together.’ It’s about trusting your ability to guide your team through challenges and knowing your leadership makes a difference, even when the path is unclear.
Let’s connect and discuss how you’re navigating leading under pressure. I would love to talk about how you can continue leading with resilience and heart in these dynamic times.
