Confusion Is Not a Strategy

There we were, standing on a brand new basketball court inside a beautifully renovated senior recreation center. This was supposed to be one of those moments where team building, leadership development, and a little movement come together to shake up the routine of just another meeting.

Then came the instructions.

We were going to play a modified version of HORSE. Except it wasn’t HORSE. It was called LEADER.

Now, here’s where things got interesting.

The facilitator began explaining the rules. The only problem was, she had never actually played HORSE before. So what started as a simple activity quickly turned into a verbal maze. Some people were trying to follow along. Others were mentally rewriting the rules based on what they thought she meant. A few brave souls tried to clarify.

And just like that, confusion entered the room. But confusion didn’t stay quiet for long. It evolved. Quickly.

Questions turned into side conversations. Side conversations turned into debates. And before we knew it, we had a full-on argument breaking out on a basketball court… about a game that nobody fully understood.

Let that sink in.

A leadership exercise meant to bring alignment ended up exposing misalignment. Not because people were unwilling to participate, but because they were trying to follow something that wasn’t clear, wasn’t grounded, and wasn’t fully understood by the person leading it.

To her credit, the facilitator did something that many leaders struggle to do. She pivoted. Quickly and gracefully.

And later, before the meeting ended, she owned it. No excuses. No deflection. Just a humble acknowledgment that she had made a leadership misstep.

That moment was the real leadership lesson.

Because buried in that experience is a truth that too many leaders ignore: You can’t lead what you don’t understand.

And let’s be honest, this doesn’t just happen on basketball courts. It shows up in conference rooms, in policy rollouts, in organizational change efforts, and in strategic initiatives. Leaders step up to guide teams through processes, systems, or decisions they haven’t fully taken the time to understand themselves. And when that happens, confusion becomes the culture.

People don’t resist leadership nearly as much as they resist unclear leadership.

When direction is fuzzy, people fill in the gaps with assumptions. When expectations are unclear, people default to what they know. And when leadership lacks clarity, teams lose confidence, not just in the plan, but in the person delivering it.

Commit this phrase to memory: Confidence without Competence creates Chaos.

The good news is that this is fixable. Great leaders don’t pretend to know everything. They prepare. They ask questions. They test their understanding before they try to guide others. And when they miss the mark, they don’t double down on confusion. They reset. Just like our facilitator did.

That pivot was leadership in action. That ownership was leadership in action. That humility was leadership in action.

So what’s the takeaway?

Before you call the play, make sure you understand the game. Before you lead the team, make sure you’ve done the work. Before you give direction, make sure you can clearly explain it in a way that builds confidence instead of confusion.

Because leadership isn’t about having the title of "Coach".

It’s about making sure people actually know what to do when you hand them the ball.