Find Your Flow
“Water configures its flow in accord with the terrain; the army controls victory in accord with the enemy.” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Jensen Huang didn’t see ChatGPT coming. Nobody did.
But when cryptocurrency mining collapsed in September 2022—eliminating Ethereum GPU mining overnight—NVIDIA was ready. Not because they predicted the future, but because they’d spent 16 years building capabilities that could flow like water into new opportunities.
The lesson isn’t about lucky timing. It’s about something far more valuable for your career.
The Rigid Leader’s Trap
Picture this: You’ve just been promoted. You craft a detailed 90-day plan. You know exactly where you’re going.
Six weeks in, your biggest initiative hits an unexpected wall. A key stakeholder leaves. Market conditions shift. Technology you bet on doesn’t deliver.
What happens next determines your trajectory.
Most leaders double down. They push harder on the original plan. They mandate compliance. They blame circumstances.
These leaders embody what I call the Rigid Leader’s Trap—believing that leadership strength means sticking to the plan no matter what.
Sun Tzu would have called this foolishness. Water doesn’t argue with rocks. It finds another way.
Superpowers Create Adaptability
Through my years leading teams at Apple and Amazon, I’ve observed specific patterns that separate leaders who rise from those who plateau. Three of these capabilities, which I’ve codified in my Leadership Superpowers framework, map directly to Sun Tzu’s water principle:
1. Pathfinding: Finding Workable Solutions
When NVIDIA’s crypto revenue evaporated, they didn’t need to panic. They’d built CUDA starting in 2006—a technology that made GPUs useful for any parallel processing task. When AI exploded, they were ready.
You don’t need 16 years of foresight. You need the ability to see your core capabilities clearly and Pathfind to new applications when circumstances change.
Your move this week: Take your most stuck project. Ask: “What new capability are we really building here? Where else could it create value?”
2. Acuity: Seeing Clearly
Huang saw GPUs differently than his competitors. While they saw graphics cards, he saw parallel processing engines. This perceptual flexibility—seeing beyond conventional categories—is what I call Acuity.
Leaders with strong Acuity don’t just solve problems. They can see how to reframe them entirely.
Your move this week: Write down your biggest challenge. Now describe it three completely different ways. What assumptions are you making about what kind of problem this is?
3. Suasion: Creating Alignment Without Force
When crypto was booming, Huang kept investing in AI infrastructure. Investors questioned the focus. He couldn’t force compliance—he brought them along gradually, demonstrating progress while maintaining flexibility.
This is Suasion: creating understanding and alignment without rigid mandates.
Your move this week: Identify your most resistant stakeholder. Instead of pushing your solution, ask: “What would success look like from your perspective?” Build from their answer.
Compounding Benefits of Adaptability
In my experience coaching leaders through transitions, I’ve observed consistent patterns in how adaptability compounds over time:
Early Stage: Building Recognition
- Problems that seemed impossible suddenly have solutions
- Stakeholders who resisted start collaborating
- You become known as someone who “gets things done” despite obstacles
Growth Stage: Expanding Influence
- Opportunities start flowing to you because you’re known for finding ways forward
- Your influence expands beyond formal authority
- Senior leaders trust you with ambiguous, high-stakes initiatives
Acceleration Stage: Leading Through Reputation
- You’re promoted not for following plans but for delivering results
- Your reputation precedes you: “Give it to them—they’ll figure it out”
- You lead through influence, not control
The timeline varies by organization and industry, but the pattern remains consistent: adaptive leaders create opportunities rather than waiting for them.
Your 30-Day Strategy
Week 1: Map Your Rigidities
- List three things you’ve caught yourself or your team having a “this is how we do things” attitude on
- Pick one that might be harming rather than providing a creative constraint — if you weren’t already doing it, would it be smart to start?
- Design a small experiment to test an alternative
Week 2: Practice Flowing Around Obstacles
- When you hit a barrier, pause before pushing
- Ask: “If I couldn’t go through this, how would I go around?”
- Try the alternative path, even briefly—what would have to be true for this to not be a problem at all?
Week 3: Expand Your Channels
- Identify three people whose support would help you flow faster
- Have one conversation focused on understanding their priorities
- Find one small way to advance their agenda while also advancing yours
Week 4: Accelerate What’s Working
- Review your experiments from weeks 1-3
- Double down on whatever created the most movement
- Let go of what created the most resistance
An Executive Secret
Here’s what I’ve learned from observing successful senior leaders: they understand that control is an illusion. Markets shift. Technologies emerge. Competitors surprise. Team members leave.
The leaders who thrive aren’t the ones with the best plans. They’re the ones who adapt fastest when plans meet reality. They can adapt quickly because they’ve been building the right fundamentals all along.
They don’t abandon their destination—water always flows downhill toward the sea. But they’re infinitely flexible about the path.
This is what Sun Tzu understood 2,500 years ago. This is what Huang demonstrated when crypto collapsed and AI emerged.
And this is what will separate you from peers still trying to force their way through obstacles that you’ve already flowed around.
Onward!
The most powerful thing about developing water-like adaptability? You can start immediately. You don’t need approval. You don’t need budget. You don’t need a new role.
You just need to approach tomorrow’s first obstacle differently.
Instead of pushing harder, pause. Look for the flow. Find the path of least resistance that still moves you toward your goal.
Because in the end, water always wins. Not through force, but through persistence. Not through rigidity, but through adaptability.
And in your career, as in nature, the adaptive leader rises while the rigid one remains stuck.
Power Up
Join Leaders Guild where we’re building a community of leaders committed to earning more, delivering better, and growing faster through deliberate Leadership Superpower development. Stay tuned for our upcoming course and challenge, which will provide hands-on tools to implement Drucker’s principles in your daily work.
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See you again next week!
Best,
— Gregor
