Defer your need to know how!  That phrase might sound counterintuitive—especially to leaders. After all, aren’t we supposed to have a roadmap, a strategy, and a bulletproof plan? Yes… and no.

Here’s what I’ve learned, both from personal experience and the incredible leaders I’ve studied with and coached: the need to know every step before we start often becomes the very thing that stops us from moving forward. 

While researching what I wanted to share with you in this blog I helped myself overcome some anxiety with my own words.  That’s NOT what I expected to happen.  Sounds a little crazy, I know, but I reread a chapter in a book I wrote and found strength and peace that I hope can do the same for you.  

Today I’m sharing details from my first book, The 7D’s to Your Destiny. We just have time to dig into chapter 4, DEFER YOUR NEED TO KNOW HOW.

Vision doesn’t require all the details.
Courage often precedes clarity.
And the “how” is usually revealed after we take a step—not before it.

Trust the Vision, Not the Details

As leaders, we’re often visionaries. We see possibilities others don’t. But when we allow our vision to be smothered by the need for clarity on every detail, we begin to doubt. We lose momentum. We hesitate.

But what if we trusted the vision, even when we didn’t yet know the full path?

When I left my secure job as executive vice president at PBS39 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to move to the south and pursue my dream of leading a PBS station, I had no idea what the next few months would look like. The station was a failed organization, with a lot of debt, a leaky roof, not much local service and very few supporters.  I didn’t have all the answers. But I had a deep conviction that it was the right thing to do. That trust allowed me to move, even when the "how" wasn't clear and let me tell you that first year, shook me to my core.  I thought I had seen it all in my over 20 years of television experience.  I was sooooooo wrong and often scared but I refused to be paralyzed.  I tried new things.  Some worked and some didn’t, so I’d pivot and go in new directions until I started getting traction.  Positive change was happening and I just had to keep going.

I’ve got a feeling you’re doubting this concept, so I’ve got some more details for you.

I’ve spent my life doing things I didn’t know how to do, and I believe YOU HAVE TOO. We just need to do an assessment of our lives. For me it started as a child when I pulled out the Encyclopedia Britanica, (that’s where you looked things up before Google) studied the origins of GROUND HOG’S DAY and wrote a play about it for my third-grade class. My love for writing was born that day, even though I didn’t know HOW to do it.

Then, one day when I was bored, I decided to make a doll out of socks, scraps of material and some yarn.  I remember my mom asking, “How do you know how to do that?”  I answered, "I don't but I’m figuring it out along the way.”   Little did I know back then that I was creating a successful pattern in my life.  

Ruth Handler figured out how to do it too.  One day while watching her daughter Barbara play grown up with some paper dolls, she got the idea to invent the Barbie Doll.  She had never made a doll before but that didn’t stop her.  That doll became the bestselling doll of all time and put Ruth’s husband’s company on the map.  A little business called Mattel.

This reminds us that great leaders are not those who have every answer in advance. They are those who act despite not knowing HOW. 

In 1999, I left commercial television as an anchor/reporter/producer to become the executive producer of that Pennsylvania PBS station that I mentioned above. I created a news magazine show.  I had NEVER done it before and didn’t know HOW.  In my interview I told the GM I was going to turn his local production team into Emmy Award winning content producers. None of them had won an Emmy and neither had I. However, I had learned HOW to defer my NEED to know HOW.  I’m honored to share, I led teams to six Emmys while I was there and have helped our PBS Charlotte team pay back debt, gain audience, donors, partners AND win six more EMMYs. 

Leadership Isn’t About Certainty. It’s About Courage.

When you defer your need to know how, you:

• Embrace growth over perfection
  
  
• Open yourself to divine timing and direction
  
  
• Create space for unexpected resources and partnerships
  
  
• Model courageous faith to those you lead

Take the First Step. The Path Will Unfold.

Think about the great innovations or movements in history. Did their leaders have every detail figured out before they began? Rarely. But they had faith, persistence, and a willingness to move forward without full clarity.

That’s the kind of leadership that changes organizations, communities, and lives.

What dream have you delayed because you don’t know how it’ll work out?

Write it down. Say it out loud. Take the first small step. Trust me: You don’t need to know how. You just need to begin.