Leadership as we know it is incomplete.

It’s not bad. It’s not broken. But it’s missing something.

We’ve spent decades defining leadership as authority, decision-making, and vision. We’ve bolted on management to keep things running and, when absolutely necessary, thrown in a half-hearted nod to followership. But we left out one of the most powerful roles of all—the role of the Guide.

And without it, leadership keeps getting stuck.

If you’ve ever felt like traditional leadership models don’t quite capture how people actually move, grow, and create impact together, you’re not wrong. Leadership isn’t just about making decisions, and it sure as hell isn’t about control. It’s about navigation. Adaptation. Integration.

It’s time to talk about Guideship.

Not All Leaders Are Guides—But All Guides Are Leaders

Leadership is often defined by its edges—who’s in charge, who follows, where power sits. But Guideship isn’t about edges—it’s about movement.

A Guide isn’t a commander. They aren’t issuing orders from the front of the room, pretending to have all the answers. Instead, they are:

• Navigators of complexity. They don’t just direct—they sense, adapt, and adjust in real time.
• Strategic improvisers. They’re comfortable with ambiguity and capable of making bold moves in the unknown.
• Bridges between leadership, management, and followership. They know when to lead, when to listen, and when to empower.
• Pattern recognizers. They see connections others miss, integrating ideas, people, and possibilities into something greater.
• Deeply invested in the growth of others. A Guide isn’t just here to get to the destination—they’re here to equip others for the journey.

Leadership without Guideship is rigid, top-heavy, and blind to the power of dynamic movement.

And movement is where the magic happens.

Where Leadership Falls Short

Traditional leadership models over-index on control.

They assume:

• The leader knows the answer. (They don’t.)
• The team just needs clear direction. (They need much more than that.)
• Uncertainty is a problem to be solved. (It’s actually where the best possibilities live.)

This is why so many organizations, teams, and individuals feel stuck—leadership alone isn’t enough.

Leadership is vision. Guideship is navigation.
Leadership is decision-making. Guideship is adaptability.
Leadership is setting direction. Guideship is moving through complexity.

One without the other? You’re either running in place or walking off a cliff.

What It Means to Guide Instead of Just Lead

Most leadership programs train people to lead from the front. They teach decision-making, communication, delegation. Important? Yes. But incomplete.

Guides move differently.

Instead of forcing people onto a pre-planned path, Guides:

• Read the terrain. They don’t assume the old map still applies—they adjust in real time.
• Create psychological safety so people can take risks, ask better questions, and challenge assumptions.
• Trust in emergence. They know that the best ideas, breakthroughs, and decisions often come from the middle of uncertainty.
• Move fluidly between leadership, management, and followership. They know that leading well sometimes means following first.

They don’t just hold the vision—they hold the space for people to explore, struggle, grow, and step into their own power.

Why Management and Leadership Aren’t Enough

Management is about structure, efficiency, execution. Leadership is about vision, strategy, momentum.

But who’s helping people navigate the connections, synapses, gray areas, and less organized moments?

Who’s saying:

• “This isn’t a problem to solve—it’s a tension to manage.”
• “There isn’t one right answer—there are multiple possibilities to explore.”
• “We don’t just need execution—we need integration, learning, and adaptation.”

That’s the Guide’s role.

And here’s the kicker: without Guideship, leadership and management actively work against each other.

Leaders push for innovation. Managers push for stability. Guides hold the tension and create movement between the two.

How You Know You’re Already a Guide
(Even If No One’s Called It That Yet)

If you’ve ever felt frustrated with traditional leadership, it’s probably because you’ve been guiding all along—without the recognition.

You might be a Guide if:

• You ask better questions than you give orders.
• You see patterns others don’t see.
• You thrive in complexity and ambiguity.
• You don’t just want to lead—you want to build something bigger than yourself.
• You care more about movement than authority.

If this sounds like you, you’re not bad at leadership—you’re something more.

And the world needs more of you.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Most leadership programs don’t talk about Guideship because they don’t know how to teach it. It’s not a checklist. It’s not a title. It’s a practice.

I built everything around it.

We don’t need more people trying to be “great leaders” in outdated models. We need more Guides—people who can think, adapt, and create the future while everyone else is still trying to control it.

That’s why Expedition Purpose, Watershed, and our coaching programs exist—to give you the tools, space, and support to step fully into Guideship.

The future of leadership isn’t about having all the answers.

It’s about guiding people toward better questions.

And if that’s how you’ve always moved through the world, you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.

There are 3 pieces to this ecosystem: Guideship (You're Here Now), the Seeds of Potential, and The Curious (that's you!)