I was thinking recently about situations where I felt like my leadership was defined and tested.


And it’s always been in a situation where there was a MESS happening.


I know it can feel like being in a chaotic situation is no good…like being hired into a disorganized team, being understaffed, or working for a company that’s going through massive layoffs.


But chaos can be an opportunity.


I don’t mean you take advantage of any upheavals to get revenge on people you dislike and claw your way to the top.


What I mean that usually only a MESS makes people realize that they need someone to hold things together to begin with.


I can’t think of a single job I’ve been hired into at a high level where there was a clearly defined set of objectives and I was greeted with a neat little list of objectives, all wrapped up in a bow for me.


It’s because at a certain level, people expect you to find what the problems are and fix them without bothering them with the pesky details. Your objectives are sort of vague, if they DO exist - “up-level quality of deliverables, increase scalability, decrease costs” - and YOU’re the one who needs to figure out what that means, describe it to others, measure it, and report on the results.


One of the first times I can remember like this? One day, a long time ago when I was working on the first season of Game of Thrones’ campaign. Our creative director suddenly got so ill that he didn’t come in, and he was so out of it that he couldn't notify anyone. 


There I was, a Senior Art Director with a giant client meeting where we were expected to present near-finished results on our deliverables — a website and an app. At that time, the CD was ALWAYS the one to give major client presentations for high-profile projects. 


I suddenly had to put together and GIVE our presentation, as well as check in on, verify, test the prototype links from the dev team in order to walk through those as well, in addition to managing the design team’s materials fully on my own. Oh, I had to keep my cool and pretend everything was fine in front of our client, which was not easy.


It was a mess. But I totally shone that day. Our client presentation went smooth as butter. They were really happy. I got the chance to see the impact of my own leadership - being visible in front of the client rather than organizing things behind the scenes. I got the chance to see how much I could do under pressure (and so did others). +1000 XP for me.


When people hire you on at a managerial level, it’s usually because there is a mess somewhere and they need someone to take charge of it so they can think about other problems.


So is that effed-up situation at work a disaster? Or is it an opportunity to practice your leadership skills?