Last week, during another Lead the Way programme, a small theme quietly appeared in the room.

Early one afternoon, my co-facilitator Melody had referenced an image of a compass and spoke about the significance of direction.

A little later, during an activity on change, one of our participants, Greta, used the word compass again.

That caught my attention.

I always carry a small compass in my backpack. It was a 60th birthday gift from my brother and sister-in-law last year, and for me it has become more than a lovely keepsake.

It is a reminder to keep asking myself: What direction am I choosing?

An activity sprang to mind.

In that moment, I asked all 27 participants to stand, close their eyes, and point north.

Whilst their eyes were closed, I placed my compass on a table to reveal true north.

When they opened their eyes, the room was chaotic.

Fingers were pointing in almost every possible direction. One person was even pointing confidently towards the ceiling!  There was a fair amount of uncertainty.

Only a few were actually pointing north.

It made us all smile, but it also made us think, because leadership can be like that.

We can be in the same room, part of the same conversation, facing the same change, and still have very different assumptions about where “north” actually is.

That is why direction matters.

In Lead the Way, the compass is also part of our programme branding, and perhaps that is why the moment landed so well. It was no longer just an image on a screen or a symbol on a wall, it had become a lived metaphor in the room.

A central theme on the programme is when we ask our participants shape to their “I am” statements, where we hope they are not just writing words, but creating a compass for the kind of leader they are choosing to become, in order to literally Lead the Way.

A reminder of what they stand for.
A guide when change feels disorientating which can happen regularly.
A way of noticing whether their behaviour is aligned with their intention.

The compass is a simple symbol, but it carries a deep leadership question:

Do you know where you are heading, and are you helping others find direction too?

Sometimes leadership begins with exactly that, by simply finding your true north.