There was a time in my career when things simply stopped adding up.
The strange thing was that nothing had changed about how I approached my work. My process was straightforward.
Tell me the objective. Let’s agree how it aligns with the broader strategic direction. We then develop the pathway and we execute.
It was a way of thinking which had served me well for years. What I had not yet recognised was that it was no longer helping me make sense of what I was experiencing. It took me awhile to recognise that the challenge was the environment had changed.
New demands were emerging outside of the existing strategic direction. Urgency was increasing. The new reality was that outcomes were being requested which the existing processes were never designed to deliver.
At first, I treated these situations as problems to be solved. Surely there was a process. There must be a strategy. Certainly, there was a way to reconcile the request with the systems, structures, and principles which existed for good reason.
But the more I tried to make sense of what was happening, the less sense it seemed to make. The issue was not a lack of effort, not lack of competence or even lack of options.
The issue was that the assumptions I was using to interpret the situation no longer explained the reality I was experiencing. That was a difficult thing to recognise back then.
When things stop adding up, most people do not immediately question their assumptions. Instead, they question themselves. They work harder, research more, try another approach, and keep looking for a better answer.
All the while becoming increasingly frustrated because the logic they are using no longer fits the environment they are trying to navigate.
Looking back now, I can see that the difficulty was not really the situations themselves.
It was that the way I had always made sense of situations like these was no longer helping me understand what was happening around me.
The more I tried to apply the logic which had served me well for years, the more disconnected it seemed from the reality I was experiencing.
What had not yet changed was my understanding of what I was seeing. The harder I worked to make sense of it, the less sense it seemed to make.
I suspect many leaders are experiencing their own version of this today.
They cannot quite put their finger on it, but something feels off.
They are working hard, investing time and energy, yet the results are not matching the effort. The explanations which once made sense no longer seem to justify what is happening around them.
Things simply do not add up.
Naturally, they keep looking for a better answer.
Sometimes the more important question is:
What assumptions am I making which no longer explain the reality I am experiencing?
Looking back, one of the most important lessons I learned was that awareness often begins when what once seemed obvious no longer explains what we are experiencing.
For me, the breakthrough was not finding a better answer. It was realising that I might not fully understand the question.
That recognition changed how I approached the situation and, in many ways, how I approached leading itself.
Perhaps becoming begins when we allow ourselves to see what we could not previously see.
Reflect & Apply
1️⃣ Where in your life or leadership do things simply not seem to add up?
2️⃣ What assumptions are you relying upon to explain what you are experiencing?
3️⃣ What if the challenge is not the answer you are pursuing, but the lens through which you are viewing the situation?
📘 Be the Person You Dream of Becoming is available on Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Person-You-Dream-Becoming-Extraordinary/dp/9769772003 or directly through me.
I help leaders develop the awareness, clarity, and decision-making capability required to navigate complexity when familiar explanations no longer work.
Invest in developing leaders who can make sense of complexity – and let their growth multiply your business success.
Remember, your success is my business.
Discerningly,
Monica Rogers-Fletcher
Listen to When Things Stop Adding Up