Wayfinding Leadership: Navigating an Ever-Changing Landscape
In my past life, I reported to a manager who intensely disliked the word “journey” in conversations about leadership and culture change.
Yet, most leadership models describe development as a journey—often linear, with a defined start and end. Leadership is rarely that predictable.
Instead, what if we viewed it as wayfinding—an ongoing navigation, adaptation, and discovery process?
Historically, wayfinding was how explorers and indigenous communities navigated unknown terrains using environmental cues, past experiences, and social influences. Organizations and leaders must do the same today—continuously adjusting to shifting landscapes.
In Wayfinding Leadership: Groundbreaking Wisdom for Developing Leaders (2015), Dr. Chellie Spiller and her co-authors draw inspiration from Polynesian navigation techniques. They emphasize that leaders are not passive travelers but active explorers, constantly sensing, adjusting, and co-creating their path forward.
