Navigating the Unknown

Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes is, to this day, my favorite comic strip. While I never ran around with a stuffed tiger, many of Calvin's adventures remind me of my own. I grew up playing in the fields and forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Summer mornings were the best. I would head out early with my brother into the woods, climbing through an imaginary porthole between two bushes next to our garden shed. We would launch from the top of an old-growth stump, grabbing the nearest vine maple trees. The vine maples grew all over the forest, providing a network of bridges and allowing us to run and play tag through the skies. We would spend all day running through the trees, ups and downs, twists and turns. The paths we charted across the would-be sky bridges were unknown to us until we ran across them.

I said goodbye to the Northwest almost three decades ago. It's been even longer since I ran through the Vine Maples. Yet, navigating the twists and turns of leadership reminds me of those would-be sky bridges. Each day, leaders can steward their paths and build the bridges they are walking on. Each day, leaders are faced with challenges, twists, and turns. Some days, we are "it," the chasers, pursuing goals and new opportunities. On other days, we are pursued by details and deadlines. Each day, leaders adapt to their organization's unique missional path. Pursuer or pursued, the goal is the same. Run across the bridges we build as we lead others toward beneficial change.

Every step across the bridge you are building is unique, and every step you take across the bridge can be uncertain. You have never been here before, but you are here today. Your past experiences are unaware of the cultural moments that stream in and through your organization today. You might misstep today if your focus is fixed on what worked yesterday. Don't forget the past, but keep your eyes forward and the lens of your mission and values clear. Others are following you. You must build the bridge you are walking on right now.

As leaders, we generally experience more challenges than victories. We embrace the uncharted paths guided only by our mission and values. We show up each day, inviting others to join us on a journey across a bridge not yet built to a place we have not yet been. Like young Calvin with his spiky yellow hair, we drive forward and adapt continually, knowing that the responsibility of leading others means jumping off into the unknown and uncertain, with the goal of building bridges as we run across.

Leadership can be lonely. Who can speak encouragement into your life today?

Leadership can be uncertain. How do you remind yourself each day of your mission and values?