As you become more senior, the world becomes less clear. The roles and responsibilities are less clear. The goals are less clear. The priorities are less clear. You’re increasingly paid for your judgement and ability to make sense of a messy system. You’re judged by your ability to deliver results in the face of ambiguity.

In my first roles as a more senior executive, I mistakenly assumed there was clarity and I simply didn’t have access to it. I would press my boss or others in the organization to share with me plans, priorities and goals for my group. I got half-answers, or answers that were framed in success metrics like “increase sales” or “decrease costs”. These metrics were easily measured but not very specific to me managing a product development organization.

I’ve since realized that my role was to take the messy confusion and craft a hypothesis that would deliver the results my organization required. That hypothesis was only the starting point. I still needed to actually get stuff done.

My hypothesis was useless if I didn’t communicate it broadly and organize people behind the plan. This communication was certainly necessary to my team. It was also key to communicate to my peers. I was surprised initially that my plan wasn’t that interesting to my boss. I mistakenly assumed that my boss would see this plan as the missing link in getting the results our organization needed. What I found was that he assumed I had this plan (maybe in the same way I assumed he knew the goals and priorities) and he would only be impressed by actual results.

I under estimated how much I needed to communicate to my peers. As I became a more senior executive, I felt more alone than I ever had before. I was in an organization that was somewhat competitive among my peer group. It was unusual to engage my peers and share with them my plans for my group, even how I felt I served them. I was the product development executive across many different business lines. Whether my peers agreed or not, this communication was fundamental to getting results for the organization.

The emphasis on working with my peers was reinforced by my realization that I needed to stop escalating so much to my boss. I was looking less often for my boss to resolve issues, and I needed to organize a solution myself. That meant building and using stronger relationships with my peers. We needed to work together as a team whether or not our boss set that expectation.

Not escalating stuff to my boss also meant more direct conflict with my peers where we disagreed. Learning to accept and manage conflict with my peers was another critical part of getting things done. I began to categorize my peers and how they dealt with conflict. I would leverage different tactics to move through conflict depending on each person. I would try and balance areas where I would give in along with areas where I would hold out. Most of all, I worked on my own ability to let go of conflicts past.

As things become more ambiguous, it’s important to focus on what you want to achieve and organize yourself to that end result. It will feel messy and inefficient. Nobody, regardless of their role in your organization, can take all of that away. You have to over communicate to many stakeholders. When you line up supporters, both your team and your peers, you will get stuff done.