How Leaders Create Direction and Drive Results

Contributor: Georgia Ellis

Leaders and managers are constantly required to create direction, often in environments that are uncertain, fast-moving, and complex. Without clear direction, teams lose focus, momentum slows, and results become inconsistent.

The ability to step back, think clearly, and consciously choose the direction forward is what separates reactive leadership from effective leadership. It’s not about having all the answers. It’s about knowing how to navigate complexity.

Back in 2013, after leaving my Senior Manager role and stepping into a new version of myself as a business owner, I took a trip to Iceland. The icy and snowy landscape was not only epic, and it also provided a timely reminder of the cortical landscape of our brains. It’s a bit of a strange connection, and stay with me…

As I took in the landscape, I couldn’t help but see a resemblance to the human brain and the way our continual thinking carves out new and unique neural pathways. It occurred to me that as an employee, I had been thinking in a certain way, which had led me to have a successful career. And that thinking, and those neural pathways, were not going to serve me as a business owner.

Fast forward to 2019, and with a deeper understanding of neurobiology and the interconnection of our thoughts, emotions, and movement, I now appreciate the power of complex thinking and the importance of rewiring our brain to steer us in a new direction. Partly because of the science, and partly because it’s exactly what I did to grow my business. I worked on my mindset first.

In the book The Biology of Belief by Dr. Bruce Lipton, he explains how our thoughts and beliefs impact our biology. If we continuously think with a negative bias about life or the future, telling ourselves limiting stories or making negative judgements, we begin to create neural pathways that reinforce that way of seeing the world.

Just like crevices in the snow carved out by a sled taking the same path over time, those continual thoughts create a deeply embedded bias.

It’s easy to feel like you’re being pulled in multiple directions. Competing priorities, shifting expectations, and constant demands can leave even the most capable leaders feeling like they’re responding to everything, and leading nothing.

And this is where many leaders unknowingly drift.

Not because they lack capability.

And not because they don’t care.

It's  because they haven’t paused long enough to consciously choose their direction.

Direction doesn’t come from activity, I've learned that it comes from clarity.
Strong leaders understand that if they don’t define the direction, the environment will do it for them. And when that happens, they move from being intentional to reactive, responding to what’s urgent rather than leading what’s important.

What this looks like in the workplace

In the workplace, this shows up in very practical ways:

• Teams become busy, and not necessarily productive
  
  
• Priorities shift frequently, creating confusion
  
  
• Decision-making slows or becomes inconsistent
  
  
• Accountability weakens because expectations aren’t clear
  
  

When leaders create direction, the opposite occurs:

• Teams understand what matters most
  
  
• Decisions become faster and more aligned
  
  
• Effort becomes focused, not scattered
  
  
• Performance improves because people know where they’re heading
  
  

When you begin to understand neurobiology, neuroscience, and even epigenetics, you quickly discover that we can retrain our brains to “steer our sled” onto a new path.

Neuroplasticity means that our brains are continually firing and wiring new pathways. The more we think a thought, the stronger the connection becomes. The less we think it, the weaker it becomes until it eventually fades.

Each one of our thoughts and subsequent behaviours contributes to this change.

It’s an empowering idea that we can prepare ourselves for complex and uncertain times through the nature of our thinking.

Not only does a shift in thinking help prepare us for the future, it also has profound physical effects and can support reduced anxiety and greater resilience.

Research has shown that consistent positive thinking can lead to:

• better health and immune function
  
  
• stronger relationships and work outcomes
  
• increased resilience
  
• greater connection with others
  
• an increased ability to thrive in complexity
  

Negative thinking, of course, produces the opposite.

And we feel it. We see it. We respond to it in others.

The best thing about being in control of our thinking is that we have a new opportunity in every moment to shape our response.

In leadership, this matters more than most realise. Because how you think influences:

• how you show up
  
  
• how you lead others
  
  
• and how your team performs
  
  

I discovered many years ago that we always have a choice in how we respond to situations, events, and people. With that awareness, and with practice, we can begin to steer ourselves onto a different path.
Some strategies that have helped me do this include:

• Being grateful for who I am, what I have, and my ability to create opportunities
  
  
• Surrounding myself with solution-focused thinkers
  
• Being a lifelong learner
  
• Staying curious and trying new things
  
• Taking appropriate risks and leaning into discomfort
  
• Practising metacognition—catching negative thoughts and consciously shifting them
  

The more I adopted these practices, the easier it became to think differently and I noticed my internal landscape changing. That change led to being able to naturally steer myself in a more intentional direction.

Changing the way I thought changed my emotional responses to people and situations. I moved from being reactive to becoming more deliberate. From being shaped by external events to influencing how I experienced them.

People who know me often think I’ve always had a positive outlook.

The truth is, I haven’t.

I’ve learned it.

And I’m still learning.

and that, perhaps, is the most important part.

The penny dropped as soon as I realised that direction isn’t something you find, It’s something you create.