Most of us have grown up with instructions, we learned to follow them and to be compliant. Building on this we often learned to avoid risks and to look out for the ways the system asks us to be. The thing is, the system doesn’t provide these instructions anymore. Sure, there still are a lot of expectations as to how we should act and behave, but these expectations only work within their contexts and you are continuously moving from one environment and culture to another.

Since the 1990, the world can be described as VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) and we have to learn to deal with it. Changes are coming in faster and very often we have an idea about it. Waiting for instructions will not answer our needs nor follow up on our ideas.

It is up to us to develop the idea to an assertion, something we can and will act upon. Sharing this assertion is tough, it requires us to stand for something, it puts us at risk to fail, it puts us in a situation in which others might look up to us asking us to show the way, to take the lead. They’ll expect from us to care for them, to make things happen and that can be a scary place.

As a leader your task is to learn to draw a map. The map will allow your people to understand the direction you are suggesting, it will help them to be informed and ask you questions about your map, it will create a dialog in which your people can disagree with you and adapt the chosen path. It will enrich your idea. It will help you to move your people and make the change happen together with them.