Business leaders today face increasingly complex and ambiguous situations as they try to navigate their way to success. As managers, we have been taught that we should be able to plan ahead and control outcomes as a result of our well thought-out actions. However, in today’s business environment, there are simply too many variables for this to continue to work. Because the fear of not being in control is difficult for many of us to manage, we often resort to external tools that try to restore control – causing us to feel like we’ve failed. Learning to live with not being in control may be the new reality.

Katherine M. Curran, Ph.D., is president of Resources for Creative Change, Inc., a strategic organization change firm in St. Paul, MN. Dr. Curran coaches and consults with organizational clients on ways to understand, increase and ethically leverage their use of power and political savvy on behalf of personal and organizational effectiveness, especially with women. An organization change consultant and coach since 1992, she assists leaders in successfully integrating business strategy with human and organizational systems change efforts so they obtain desired results.

She holds a Ph.D. and an-evidence based coaching certificate from Fielding Graduate University, and a Two Year Post Graduate Certificate in Organization Development from the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland.