Embracing Uncertainty With Values-Based Leadership

If there was ever a time for values-based leadership in our country, it is now.

As massive protests continue to escalate and a global pandemic spreads, leadership is losing relevance because of a lack of shared values.

How do we expect our leaders to act in a chaotic, uncertain environment? 

As a leadership coach, I struggle to find the words that could have an impact beyond my writing desk. Words are important in the present, but they can’t change what has already occurred. Ideas can, and it is values-based ideas that we are lacking at the moment. In the midst of crisis, key decision-makers and public figures are simply trying to manage a difficult situation, each with their own compass, but none with a collective purpose.

Let’s face it: We were unprepared for the pandemic. Yet we knew of pandemics, had experienced them before and were able to predict what could happen. And still, we were not prepared. We’ve known about racism, unresolved injustice and violence against the innocent by those with power. But we were blindsided by the current outbreak of violent demonstrations.

Here’s the thing: It is not possible to be blindsided by an issue that we have known about and dealt with for hundreds of years. What happened? Or, better, what didn’t happen that should have? Why?

Who would have thought that such a powerful country would allow itself to be brought to its knees in this way, in part by its own hand?

What is going on here? Blame it on whoever you wish. Blame is a futile game.

Although human potential is practically limitless, our frailty gets in the way. We are unconscious until jarred into a conscious state. When the crisis arrives, we are stunned, frozen in place. We can only react. The science shows that subconsciously, we tend to err on the side of security, predictability and sure outcomes. The herd often feels safer not addressing a societal issue than addressing it because we cannot be sure of the result. Yet we won our independence and prevailed over civil war without knowing the outcome.

I couldn’t help but notice how faintly we heard the signal when our air was shown to be clearer during the pandemic. With all those cars staying at home, Wuhan’s skies opened up. In Tibet, you could see Mount Everest from 124 miles away. How difficult would it be to rid the world of combustible engines in favor of a cleaner solution? It is only as difficult as we collectively make it. And we make it difficult because we get paid based upon our views. Competing interests slow or stop progress. But when forced into it, the air clears, the water clears and the environment improves. Amazing.

In the book The Possibility Principle, Mel Schwartz discusses the need to embrace uncertainty: “Uncertainty is the correlative of change and possibility. … But when we accept that all of life is uncertain … we can recover our human potential.”

Have we lost our human potential? I don’t think so. When we react, it is superhuman. The clarity of the moment “saves us.” We see it every day in business, when CEOs make big, difficult decisions with people’s lives; in our hospitals, where doctors and nurses are dying, saving the lives of people they don’t know; in our poorest populations, where the food insecure heroically survive. This is human potential in its highest form.

What are we truly capable of?

I can only go by my experience. Like many, I have endured hardships that would seem unimaginable to some. I was forced by events to rise to a higher level, knowing only that the outcome was uncertain. I fell back on my values. I engaged in perseverance, faith and love in overcoming my circumstances. I came back stronger.

As a country, we "lose it" when we forget our values. We are capable of more when we embrace the value system that made us. Our founders took pains to describe in our Constitution what freedom means. It wasn’t enough to prevent what’s happening now. But their words and actions based on the values of freedom give us permission to revise history for a better present and future. Lincoln held fast to the enduring values of unity 100 years later. These were men with values-based ideas and substantial will. They embraced the uncertainty and prevailed. They were not playing it safe.

Great leaders operate from values that help us converge to a single purpose. Strong values lead to big, bold ideas. We need that now.

What is to become of us if we fail to recognize the power of humanity to rise to greatness? We are capable of amazing things when our values dominate decision-making.

Let’s get back to values-based ideas and leadership. We need to stand for something again.