TL;DR: Most leaders react to complexity by demanding a simpler map. But simplicity comes at the cost of accuracy, and an inaccurate map leads you down the wrong path, straight into overwhelm and burnout. The real work is building complexity within yourself. When the mental model inside you matches the reality outside you, you stop oversimplifying and start leading within complexity.
One of my clients is a senior engineering leader. His superpower is solving complicated technical problems. When a system breaks, he gathers the right people, asks the right questions, and traces the problem to its cause.
Then his boss handed him a mandate: "Use AI and finish things 2x faster."
In our coaching sessions, he worried about his reputation. I asked him to say out loud what he was saying in his head: Will I talk to the right people and gather enough context? Can I wrap my head around the constantly shifting understanding of AI and its capabilities? Can I hold all of it in my head without getting overwhelmed?
Build Complexity Within Yourself
When people think about complexity, their knee-jerk reaction is to simplify it. A classic example of how complexity can overwhelm leaders is the slide below from almost 20 years ago, shown to a U.S. general to explain the American military strategy in Afghanistan.
Supposedly, the general muttered, "When we understand that slide, we'll have won the war." Yes, we want clarity. And it usually comes at the cost of accuracy. Truly, I would have been impressed if the general had said, "Finally, an image that reflects how I see things in my mind's eye."
In the age of AI, we can handle more and more complexity because we can engage with large, structured data. We don't have to ask AI to simplify reality for us. Instead, we can engage with complexity and build a more accurate representation of it in our minds. This is called a mental model — the set of deep assumptions and long-held beliefs you have developed through your lived experience.
Simple mental models are comfortable. They give you control, quick wins, and clear proof of worth. But the world is a complex, dynamic system we are all living within. Overwhelm comes when the mental model within us doesn't accurately reflect the reality outside of us. In other words, the world's complexity doesn't conform to our simple models, and that confuses us.
That is why we need to train leaders to hold complexity and lead within it, rather than dismissing the consultants, like the general did, and demanding they simplify things to develop a better course of action.
And it all starts with building the capacity to see complexity within ourselves.
Three Foundational Mental Models
To help you build a more sophisticated mental model of reality, layer these three:
Your values. Which two values best describe your intended leadership style? Think of values as the source code that drives your actions. Do your actions over the past month at work reflect these values?
Your emotions. When the pressure is on, what do you do? Do you react? Or do you respond? To react means urgency decides for you. To respond means you feel the urgency and make an intentional choice about what to do next. And do you stay true to your values when you become emotionally dysregulated?
Your thinking. Complicated problems have answers that experts can find. Complex ones don't reveal cause and effect until later. Instead, you have to infer, and you have to pay close attention to what emerges. How comfortable are you in non-linear situations, where you probe, sense, and then respond? Can you hold true to your values and emotions, waiting for patterns to emerge and give direction?
Next time you face complexity, ask one question first: what's my mental model right now?
That's what my client did. Rather than treating complexity like a complicated problem he could fix, he adopted a complexity mindset: embrace uncertainty, experiment to learn, and manage expectations. And now his team works that way too. They talk through complexity openly, naming the values, emotions, and thinking each moment demands.
As for the question that started our coaching, can I hold all of this? He can now. Not because the work got simpler, but because the model holding it grew as layered as the complexity itself.
If you want help your organization lead within complexity, I do 1:1 executive coaching, workshops, and facilitation designed to make reality easier to tell, easier to hear, and easier to act on. Contact me at [email protected] and visit leadinstride.com to learn more.
References
Anderson, Robert J., and William A. Adams. Mastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results. Wiley, 2016.
Brown, Brené. Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. Random House, 2018.
Senge, Peter M. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Doubleday, 1990.
Snowden, David J., and Mary E. Boone. "A Leader's Framework for Decision Making." Harvard Business Review, Nov. 2007.
