BURN THE MAP.

For most of modern business history, leadership was built on a simple assumption: The world is  stable enough that experience prepares you for what comes next.

You learned the rules, mastered the systems, and optimized for efficiency. And for a long time, that worked. But the world has outgrown our maps.

AI is rewriting the rules of work faster than we can regulate it. Customer expectations reinvent themselves every six months. And the life span of a business model is now measured in quarters,  not decades.  We live in a VUCA and BANI reality - volatile, uncertain, complex, brittle, anxious, nonlinear. And the leadership models we inherited were not built for this world.

When the terrain changes faster than the map, leadership stops being about navigation and starts being about exploration. We no longer need leaders who follow the map. We need leaders who can walk off the map.

These leaders are not reckless. They are responsive. They don’t move on instructions — they move on signals. They don’t wait for full clarity — they create clarity in motion.

And that requires a different compass.

The New Compass: Curiosity. Empathy. Conviction.

In a world where expertise ages like milk, clinging to what we “know” is a liability. Especially because most leaders today were promoted for their expertise.

But in environments of exponential change, expertise expires long before authority does. That gap between what leaders know and what the world demands, is where many organizations get stuck.

Let’s break down the compass.

1. Curiosity: The Fuel of Continuous Reinvention

BlackBerry executives once said: “People don’t want a phone without buttons.” They weren’t foolish - they were certain. And certainty made them blind.

Curiosity does the opposite. It keeps leaders open, awake, alert, humble. Curiosity doesn’t mean asking more questions. It means asking braver ones. Questions that challenge your assumptions. Questions that risk discomfort. Questions that admit: “We might be wrong.”

Satya Nadella didn’t turn around Microsoft with a new strategy deck. He turned it around with a new mindset: “What are we missing? What are we pretending not to see?” He rebuilt Microsoft as a learning culture, not a knowing culture.

Curiosity isn’t a soft skill. It’s a competitive advantage.

In the next decade, “learning velocity” will matter more than planning accuracy. The companies with the fastest learning cycles will outrun those with the biggest strategy departments.

2. Empathy: Because People Don’t Follow Control - They Follow Connection

When uncertainty rises, most leaders instinctively tighten their grip. More KPIs. More rules. More performance pressure. But control doesn’t create alignment, it creates compliance.

And compliance breaks under stress. Connection, however, sustains people. It gives them a sense of belonging, purpose, and psychological safety. And that is what fuels courage.

In times of uncertainty, people don’t need leaders who are perfect. They need leaders who are present.

Empathy used to be considered a “nice-to-have.” It is now infrastructure - the psychological equivalent of clean air and safe water. Cultures without empathy become brittle. Cultures with empathy become brave.

3. Conviction: The Inner Anchor That Keeps Teams Steady in Chaos

On January 15, 2009, Captain “Sully” Sullenberger lost both engines 90 seconds after takeoff. No map. No checklist. No guidance. Just a split second and a belief: “I believe it could work.” Not certainty - conviction.

Conviction is not stubbornness. It is purpose in motion.

Control says: “I need to manage this.” Conviction says: “I believe in this.”

Conviction transforms chaos into clarity because it grounds decisions in something deeper than fear: Values. Principles. Purpose. Responsibility.

In a world where algorithms can predict, optimize, and automate, human leaders will differentiate themselves not by intelligence but by integrity. Machines can calculate. Only humans can stand for something.

Building Cultures That Don’t Fear the Unknown - They Thrive in It

Burning the map isn’t about dismantling structure. It’s about dismantling rigidity. It’s about building organizations where adaptability is natural, not forced.

Cultures fit for the unknown do three things: They reward questions, not just answers. Curiosity becomes part of the performance system.  They normalize change. Not as a crisis, but as an expectation. They measure learning velocity. How fast do we notice, adapt, and integrate new insights? Because if we’re not uncomfortable, we’re not innovating.

The future belongs to organizations that treat change the way athletes treat training, not as an interruption, but as a lifestyle.

You Don’t Need the Map. You Are the Compass.

Leadership beyond the known is a mindset shift. A muscle. A practice. A promise.

Not to have all the answers. But to create momentum when answers don’t exist. To move forward even when the path isn’t visible. To lead with curiosity, empathy, and conviction.

Burn the map. Trust your compass. Lead us somewhere new.

And the real question is: What map do YOU need to burn starting tomorrow?

Magdalena