Navigating Unpredictable Behavior

In cardiology, “irregularly irregular” describes a heart rhythm with no predictable pattern. Even the irregularity is unpredictable.

Leaders can do this too.

If you are consistently difficult, I can develop a strategy for navigating you. But erratic unpredictability creates something different: stress, anxiety, and hypervigilance. Energy is spent watching, assessing, and navigating rather than strategizing, collaborating, and challenging.

I am reading Careless People, and this description of Sheryl Sandberg stopped me:

"An arbitrary flex of power, That seems to be how she operates: unpredictable, keeping us all on edge, never quite knowing when she will strike, so we are never tempted to push any boundaries ,even the simplest ones.  Strict rules, selectively enforced, and the baseline of ever present fear.”

“The baseline for ever present fear”- Wow.

This doesn't create strong contributors. It creates cautious ones. People learn to stay within the lines, keep their heads down, and avoid the risk of challenging you. A display of power intended to maintain authority quietly dismantles credibility and respect.

I have seen this firsthand and witnessed the rubble it leaves behind.

A team becomes destabilized when people have to take the emotional pulse of their leader before approaching them.

That is wasted energy. And it is not theirs to navigate.

Self-leadership requires consistency. Not consistency of outcome, but consistency of approach.

• Are you curious even when challenged?

• Open to discussion when you disagree?

• Consistently honest with your words?

• Thoughtful with your actions?

• 
  

Your team doesn't need to predict every decision you will make. They should be able to predict who they will encounter when you make it.

My challenge to you:

• Do others need to navigate you?

• Are you allowing irregularity from others?

• And perhaps the harder question: What is the cost of believing that isn't yours to own?