I always laugh to myself when I hear someone recount how they bravely led a business through terrible times. “I made so many brilliant decisions, acted with enormous courage, stared down the investors who were trying to cheat me, blah blah blah. . .without breaking a sweat.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That’s funny to me. I’m just entertained by people who need to rewrite history and paint themself as a hero. Maybe it’s easier to rewrite history than to try to understand what was actually happening.

Here’s a simple truth that you already know: leading big change is messy. Always. Not because of bad leadership but because the essence of transformation is disruption. Things are often very unclear.

This video points out a simple leading indicator for messy times, a reframe that will help you point your focus where it’s useful. It will make it easier to stay confident and clear about what’s really happening—instead of believing you must make up stories about how great things are.