Reflection/Why I’m Grateful:

You know, I often think to myself that I’m complicated — but really, I’m simple. Not too long ago, I made a comment to some colleagues about my son being overly complicated. They laughed and said, “Yep, he’s a chip off the old block.”

And I had to laugh too, because they weren’t wrong. I start off complicated. I begin in nuance — mapping permutations, exploring angles, wrestling with all the complexity under the hood. But I never stay there. I work my way to simple.

I’ve learned that if I can sit in the complication long enough to distill it down to something clear, clean, and simple, then I’m being a more effective leader. That’s how I operate with ideas, with projects, even with this course we’re building. At the beginning, I’m turning the idea over and over, thinking through every path it could take. And I know that can be challenging for the folks working with me — because they’re working with me while I’m still working it out in my mind. I don’t have it all figured out.

But that’s the process. I iterate. I mull it over. I let the complexity speak so that, by the time the idea reaches the market, it’s simple. Clear. Transferable.

I can see the evolution in my communication over the last 10 years. I remember early in my career, I wrote a two-page letter to Oprah Winfrey on behalf of a donor. I handed it over, proud of all my “best thinking.” He looked at it and said, “Simplify this.” That moment taught me something I’ve never forgotten:

It’s okay — even necessary — to go deep into complexity. But when you present it to the world, simplicity is the real mark of mastery.

The best and most confident leaders understand complexity. They engage it. They honor it. But they make it simple.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”— Psalm 32:8

 (An uncommon verse for leadership, but deeply aligned with being guided from complexity toward clarity.)