Comfort with uncertainty

A trait that I admire in leaders is the sense of composure they project in uncertain situations.

I often wonder: are they more composed because they have some kind of special knowledge about how the situation will unfold, or are they simply more comfortable with uncertainty and their ability to navigate it?

During a brainstorming session today, my team uncovered all kinds of uncertainty around our core project.

It was daunting at first — how are we going to ever figure this out?

But then we slowly started to converge on a pragmatic view of the situation:

1. We have to make initial judgements based off of incomplete information.
2. The very first solution we implement probably isn’t going to be the version we end with.
3. There are no perfect solutions; only better or worse ones.
4. We will continue to improve as long as we are open to changing our minds and iterating as we receive new information.

For many, particularly perfectionists, there’s a lot of stress to get things right the first time.

I think the composure I admire in great leaders is in part the result of their understanding that it is an often unrealistic expectation to have when dealing with new or complex problems, and their extraordinary tenacity when it comes to remaining focused on sitting and sifting through a messy problem as long as it takes until it is solved.