I had a great conversation today with person I mentor, like many professionals, he craves clarity and structure. It made me reflect on how embracing ambiguity has been one of my greatest professional assets.
Here’s what I’ve learned about the power of navigating the undefined: While clarity provides a comfortable box with defined boundaries, ambiguity offers something more valuable – an open canvas.
Early in my career, an evaluation noted that I “manage extremely well with ambiguity.” What seemed like a passing comment became a guiding principle for my approach to work and life.
Many of my greatest successes have come from leaning into uncertain spaces:
- Creating roles that didn’t previously exist
- Delivering outcomes people never imagined possible
- Finding innovative solutions by looking beyond conventional boundaries
True CEO thinking isn’t about waiting for someone to define what success looks like. It’s about seeing the bigger picture, understanding systems, and aligning actions to what best serves your company, customers, and shareholders. I do believe as leaders our job is to help provide clarity and direction, but it need not be so prescriptive to limit the creativity and out of the box thinking that comes from emerging leaders around us. The most valuable opportunities rarely come with instruction manuals. They emerge in the gaps between defined roles, in the questions no one has answered yet, in the problems others find too ambiguous to tackle.
My advice to this person: I encouraged him to lean into ambiguity, to practice sitting in that uncomfortable space and envisioning the possibilities, how would HE create clarity? I’m looking forward to our next coffee!
What’s your relationship with ambiguity? Do you seek to eliminate it, or have you learned to harness its potential?
