Leading in Uncertainty: A Framework to Improve Performance

Abstract

We are all leaders in our organizations in some form. As leaders, we often face elements outside our control. As systems engineers, we often think of technical uncertainties, which we attempt to predict, manage, and mitigate, but as leaders many of the uncertainties we experience are not technical in nature. They involve elements, such as people, and incorporate unknown and known unknowns. This work uses academic literature and subject matter experts to develop and propose a framework to provide leaders with a tool to help achieve their goals with the uncertainties they face as leaders. This paper 1) describes our methodology to develop the framework, which is based‐on a semi‐structure literature review and stakeholder analysis and 2) proposes a framework to help leaders overcome uncertainties they face while influencing others.