No matter how experienced and seasoned a leader is, they will inevitably be tasked with approaching a situation they haven’t seen before.
The unfamiliar territory might involve presenting a strategy to a board, leading someone who was recently a peer, terminating a strong performer, handling a major layoff, stepping into a new culture, or taking over a team that distrusts leadership.
Novel situations arise for most leaders quite frequently.
The natural tendency for any leader is to act cautiously, feel uncertain, and search for predictability and control as soon as they can find them.
Pretending the situation is more similar than dissimilar to others they’ve handled is a common defense against the fear of failure. But that doesn’t make unfamiliar situations easier to navigate.
The best approach is to seek out trusted experts or colleagues who have seen the situation before.
Good leaders use the experience of others to orient themselves. What should they expect to happen? What are the critical elements at play? How might the situation unfold? What risks might they overlook?
Forming expectations before approaching the situation is critical for elevating confidence and formulating an effective strategy.
Only arrogant leaders skip this learning process.
Without a healthy dose of uncertainty, overly confident leaders apply old solutions too quickly. They miss the fact that the new context typically recreates what counts as success.
They fail to recognize that what “winning” means will likely be different in this new situation, and they proceed too quickly with what they think they know.
The result? They usually miss the mark by a wide margin. That’s why talking with experts is so important.
In addition to relying on trusted experts, good leaders also seek the views of those closest to similar scenarios and problems, especially those who disagree with the dominant view of what counts as success in the situation.
The key is to form a view that will guide them at the start of the episode. They must define success before entering unfamiliar ground. Experts can help them to clarify what goals they want to achieve and anchor their understanding in purpose.
Using their newly formed expectations as a baseline, good leaders then approach the situation with curiosity, rely on their judgment to determine their moves and actions, and adjust their behaviors as new information appears.
They process information and data more slowly than normal to test their assumptions about what is salient in the unfolding situation. A willingness to instantly revise what they think they know is essential.
To offset their doubt and uncertainty, good leaders often move forward with a small action instead of a flurry of moves. Each successive action tells them whether to stay the course or adjust the approach.
Effectiveness in unfamiliar situations comes less from taking the “right” actions and more from how leaders navigate uncertainty by adapting to the episode as it unfolds.
In new situations, the best leaders trade speed for understanding, certainty for learning, and control for insight. At least at the beginning.
It all comes down to a practical and useful frame for approaching the situation. They form this mental model by talking with others and drawing a strong conclusion based on what they learn. In that way, the unfamiliar is never completely unknown.
