Ever find yourself in a set of circumstances where you just don’t have a clue? For many of us, that question should be amended to read: “How many times a day/week do you find yourself in a set of circumstances where you literally don’t have a clue?” In familiar leadership jargon, this would be a scenario where you have limited (if any) task-related knowledge, experience or skill.

And, if we can agree that willingness to perform is a function of task-specific confidence, commitment and motivation, the challenge begins to crystalize. It’s not that we don’t want to succeed or that we aren’t committed to the task. It’s that we have no idea what we are doing, and we are afraid we are about to prove that fact beyond all reasonable doubt!

I was at a reunion event recently and found myself reflecting on this predicament. Years ago, I was on “life support” in a calculus class that I had to take my freshman year of college. As such, I found myself in a one-on-one, after-school session with my professor. He had painstakingly reviewed the steps associated with solving the problem that presented itself on the chalkboard. I stood there absolutely frozen. The equation on the board might as well have been in a foreign language (and in many respects it was). The complete and utter silence in the room was deafening. And then my professor, who in all likelihood had to get home to his family, uttered the following words:

“Don’t just stand there; make a mistake!”

I remember smiling a nervous smile and taking a step with chalk in hand, toward the board. I focused as hard as I could on the instructions he just provided. I proceeded to make a number of mistakes (just as he had told me to do) and he proceeded to provide me with structured feedback on those missteps. Somewhere along the way, something “clicked.” He got to go home to dinner—and I somehow passed a calculus exam or two.

So, what do you want, seek, crave and welcome when you are scared and clueless? The answer is, direction. You want somebody to give you the benefit of their experience. You want somebody to tell you what to do. And, quite often, you need somebody to say something to break the silence in the room and, ultimately, communicate:

“I can’t help you if you won’t take a step to help yourself. But, if you do, I guarantee you we’re going to figure this out!”

In Situational Leadership® terms, the previous example is intended to serve as a testament to the power of a well-executed leadership style S1 (high task behavior and low relationship behavior). Leadership style S1 is a “short-term” influence strategy with one overriding objective: Create movement. Predictably, when somebody “puts the chalk in their hand and actually starts trying to solve the equation on the board,” here’s what happens:

• The fear of failure gives way to commitment and motivation.
• The leader can provide incremental feedback on both progress and setbacks (therefore becoming a catalyst for accelerated development).

In a world that, in many ways, has become consumed with collaboration, don’t dismiss the benefits of preparing people for effective participation by ensuring they “get moving” down the right track!