‘Must be comfortable / highly skilled in managing ambiguity’. Could this be the most standard prerequisite when a company is looking for new employees? In years of managing and hiring, I’ve rarely encountered those who tell me they struggle to deal with ambiguity. In the past year, I’ve interviewed tens of candidates (I’m hiring, by the way) and I can honestly say there has been not one exception to this rule. Yet paradoxically, failing to deal with ambiguity has been the biggest single cause of underperformance in a role. It’s a sink or swim moment for many, and those who sink are often the ones who fail to cut through the chaotic, frenetic, clutter and become caught up in a whirlwind, unable to win.
So how realistic is it that 100% of the team can deal proficiently with ambiguity? In fact, where is this skill even taught? I’ve prepared some tips for you if you’re a leader of a team who is struggling to deal with ambiguity. I’ve also given some thought to how you yourself can improve your own ability to deal with ambiguity.
If you’re a leader of a team who struggles with ambiguity:
- From day one, set or reaffirm an expectation that you require people to embrace ambiguity – give examples of what this might look like.
- Acknowledge that it’s fine to put your hand up and say that this feels new or uncomfortable, maybe use a scaling tool for your team to self-diagnose. Better to have those who struggle given support than pretend everything is fine.
- Reconfirm your role as a supporter – for those who are about to embrace ambiguity, they need to know that you have their back, and that you won’t start a witch hunt when they make a wrong call. In short, give them permission to fail, and mean it.
- Manage upwards to your boss, share the journey your team are on and keep dialogue open and honest in case you need to request extra funded support to help the group develop in this area.
- Set your own boundaries with the team. If you’re asking them to embrace ambiguity, you need to sometimes step back and let them set their own clarity, rather than constantly setting it yourself.
If you’re struggling with ambiguity yourself:
- Recognise and share with a line manager, trusted colleague or coach that you’re struggling to navigate ambiguity.
- Try to understand why this is – is it simply because you don’t feel equipped, or is it because you have had a bad experience in the past, where you feel you have perhaps been pursued for making a wrong decision.
- Ask for support – if you need to verbalise a decision before making it, mock up a scenario, or if you need someone to talk through the pros and cons with you, set up a trusted support network around you to do this. Helping each other is key.
- Ask yourself, what is the worst that could happen? This will vary depending on industry, and will allow you to pinpoint lower risk scenarios to practice on.
- Manage your stakeholders. Sounds like a cliché, but the biggest lever to pull in managing ambiguity, is managing stakeholders. Identify your stakeholder group, let them know where you’re heading, keep them informed, open yourself up for questions. Realising you’re not alone in managing ambiguity is a turning point that is often opened up by great stakeholder management.
The reality is ambiguity, to a greater or lesser degree, is present in every operational project (I’m not even going to say business, because this struggle is just as alive in the public sector) and always has been. Navigating it is our job, as leaders, as managers, as employees. The sooner we acknowledge that this can sometimes be tough, talk openly about the requirement for this and our struggles with it, the more we’ll continue to improve our performance and importantly, happiness at work.