#542 The Navigator’s Pivot: How Leaders Can Make Better Decisions When Certainty Has Disappeared | Interview with Danura Miriyagalla
The Navigator’s Pivot: How Leaders Can Make Better Decisions When Certainty Has Disappeared
In this leadership interview, Danura Miriyagalla speaks with Niels Brabandt about uncertainty, career transitions and the disciplined art of navigating work and life when control is limited and decisions still have to be made.
Why this interview matters now
The contemporary leadership environment no longer rewards the illusion of perfect control. Decision-makers in business face unstable markets, volatile technologies, regulatory pressure, geopolitical tension, shifting employee expectations and increasingly ambiguous career paths. In this interview for the leadership podcast and videocast by Niels Brabandt, Danura Miriyagalla discusses precisely this challenge through the lens of his book, The Navigator’s Pivot: A Reflective Guide to Work, Life, Changes.
Brabandt opens the conversation by framing the central leadership question: how should people navigate life and work when decisions become difficult, uncertain and emotionally demanding? Miriyagalla’s response is clear. Uncertainty is no longer an exception. It is the operating condition. For business leaders, this changes the nature of strategy, career development, talent management and personal leadership.
Uncertainty is not a disruption. It is the new baseline
Miriyagalla explains that much traditional career and leadership guidance still assumes a predictable path: define a destination, set a plan, follow the sequence and arrive. In his view, that assumption no longer reflects the world in which professionals and organisations now operate. External factors increasingly reshape work, careers and leadership decisions before any carefully designed plan can be executed.
For decision-makers, this is a serious warning. Leadership models built on excessive certainty risk becoming performative. They may provide psychological comfort, but they do not necessarily produce better judgement. Miriyagalla argues that leaders and professionals must learn to work with uncertainty rather than attempt to eliminate it.
The navigation metaphor: a serious framework, not a decorative image
Brabandt asks Miriyagalla about the book’s visual and conceptual language: the boat, the compass and the idea of navigation. Miriyagalla describes navigation as a powerful metaphor because it connects decision-making with movement through the unknown. In the ancient world, navigators moved towards unfamiliar lands under uncertain conditions. They did not possess perfect information, but they still had to read signals, adjust direction and continue the journey.
The book, according to Miriyagalla, is structured as a reflective guide. It uses eight frameworks, around forty navigation-related metaphors and examples across policy, business, research and creative domains. The aim is not to offer a rigid formula. It is to provide a language through which readers can understand their own transitions more clearly.
Why local careers are still shaped by global currents
One of Brabandt’s important questions addresses accessibility. Does the book primarily speak to people with major international careers, or can professionals with regional or local careers also recognise themselves in it? Miriyagalla is explicit: international experience is not required. His own background across seven countries and four continents informs the examples, but the relevance is not limited to globally mobile executives.
His point is strategically important. Even local careers are affected by international dynamics. Supply chains, regulation, technology, migration, capital flows, geopolitical risk and cultural change all influence local organisations. A leader may never relocate abroad and still be shaped by international currents. In that sense, the navigation metaphor speaks to any professional trying to make sound decisions in an interconnected world.
The real question is not whether a decision feels right immediately
Brabandt raises a further practical issue: many people do not necessarily struggle to make decisions. They make them. The difficulty comes later, when they wonder whether another route might have been wiser. This is one of the most relevant parts of the interview for senior professionals, founders, executives and managers. Decision-making is not only about speed. It is also about alignment.
Miriyagalla answers by returning to purpose. He suggests that people need to identify the deeper meaning behind their work. He offers the example of three words that may capture a person’s orientation, such as family, financial independence or adventure. The specific words will differ from person to person, but the principle remains: decisions should be evaluated against purpose rather than merely against salary, role title or immediate opportunity.
Purpose as the fixed star
For Miriyagalla, the destination is less important than the direction. The vessel may change. The route may shift. A forced pivot may occur. Yet the underlying purpose can remain a guiding star. This distinction matters for leadership because many organisations confuse targets with purpose. Targets may be necessary, but they cannot replace the deeper orientation that allows people to keep moving during uncertainty.
In Brabandt’s interview, Miriyagalla makes the case for values, orientation and purpose as practical tools, not abstract language. When a career or organisation must pivot, purpose helps leaders distinguish between necessary adaptation and strategic drift. Without such orientation, every change can feel like a loss of identity. With orientation, change can become disciplined movement.
Leaders cannot escape uncertainty. They must lead through it
Brabandt asks whether reading the book enables people to escape uncertainty for the foreseeable future. Miriyagalla’s answer is direct: the goal is not escape, but dealing with uncertainty. He argues that the variables of uncertainty are themselves shifting. Attempting to build complete certainty, total control or perfection into a career or organisation is therefore unrealistic.
This is also a leadership challenge. Miriyagalla warns against leaders who put on a brave face and claim to know exactly what is happening. In complex environments, that kind of certainty is rarely credible. A true leader, he suggests, understands that decisions often have to be made with imperfect information, limited control and incomplete visibility.
The danger of waiting and the danger of rushing
The interview also highlights an important balance. When uncertainty rises, leaders cannot simply step back and wait indefinitely. Yet they also cannot declare that any decision will do. This is where the alignment between purpose and action becomes essential. The leader’s task is not to pretend that the sea is calm. The task is to read conditions honestly, keep the team oriented and move with disciplined judgement.
For business decision-makers, this point is especially relevant in transformation, restructuring, market entry, innovation, succession planning and career development. The decisive question is not whether uncertainty exists. It clearly does. The decisive question is whether leaders have a reflective framework strong enough to act responsibly within it.
A reflective guide rather than a fixed model
Towards the end of the interview, Brabandt asks how people can work with Miriyagalla if they need coaching, keynote input or organisational support. Miriyagalla emphasises that his guidance is not intended as a fixed model imposed from outside. It is designed to help people ask better questions and find answers from within their own experience.
This distinction is essential. In the leadership market, many frameworks promise certainty while quietly ignoring complexity. Miriyagalla’s approach appears more demanding and more credible. It does not offer the comfort of a universal script. It invites reflection, orientation and a more mature relationship with change.
What decision-makers should take from the conversation
The interview between Danura Miriyagalla and Niels Brabandt offers a valuable message for leaders: uncertainty is not a failure of planning. It is now part of the landscape. Professionals and organisations need the courage to pivot, but also the discipline to remain aligned with purpose. The metaphor of navigation works because it neither denies difficulty nor romanticises change. It accepts that the journey is real, the waters can shift and leadership still requires movement.
For executives, entrepreneurs and senior professionals, The Navigator’s Pivot is therefore not merely a book about career transitions. It is a conversation about judgement under uncertainty. It asks leaders to replace the illusion of control with orientation, reflection and action. That is exactly the leadership conversation many organisations need now.
Niels Brabandt
---
More on this topic in this week's videocast and podcast with Niels Brabandt: Videocast / Apple Podcasts / Spotify
For the videocast’s and podcast’s transcript, read below this article.
Is excellent leadership important to you?
Let's have a chat: NB@NB-Networks.com
Contact: Niels Brabandt on LinkedIn
Website: www.NB-Networks.biz
Podcast and Videocast Transcript
Niels Brabandt
Sometimes you have to make decisions. The question is: sometimes decisions might feel way harder compared to other situations. The question is: how do you navigate life, how do you navigate work, when decisions come, let's say, a bit tough. And we have an expert on the matter with us here today. Hello and welcome, Nura Mirya Gala.
Danura Miriyagalla
Thanks so much, Nils, for this opportunity. Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, wherever you are.
Niels Brabandt
Perfect. Thank you very much for taking the time. We're getting straight into it. You just wrote this book, "The Navigator's Pivot: A Reflective Guide to Work, Life, Changes," and of course my first question has to be: what was your main motivation to write this book at this point in time?
Niels Brabandt
Because many people at the moment, and especially also in the future, are struggling more and more with making decisions because they say everything is so unclear, so not safe, so not predictable. So how make any decisions? How to navigate all of this? So what was your motivation to write this book right now?
Danura Miriyagalla
The motivation was simple, Nils. There's so much uncertainty going on in careers and obviously the world at large, and there's a need for people to appreciate the fact that uncertainty is now a norm. Before, there was—there often—there's a lot of talk about certainty, and in fact, if you look at leadership books or career guidance books, there's a general expectation that you could have this standard, fixed model, step-by-step approach to treating work-life transitions. You could kind of plan and kind of deliver on your plan to get from point A to point B. That's not the case anymore. There's increasingly external levels of engagement that one cannot predict.
Danura Miriyagalla
And yourself as well, people are changing, and I wanted to kind of come up with a book that reflects that. But my own career has also been one that's full of change and lots of shifts and pivots. I had a 25 career in the international sector, so I wanted to bring that experience in the book and provide some guidance to those that would like to reflect on their own journeys and have a mirror for them to look at.
Niels Brabandt
Excellent. So when people now say you're going to give them guidance, what is this relying on? Because when I look on the cover, I see a boat, I see a compass. So what is the approach you take here?
Danura Miriyagalla
It's a reflective guide, which means that we have the possibility of bringing in metaphors, a whole language, a whole vocabulary around navigation. It's a beautiful metaphor if you think about it. In the ancient world, the people that were moving in ships to unknown lands were moving with uncertainty. And with that metaphor, we have a possibility of bringing a whole language together.
Danura Miriyagalla
So this book has eight frameworks, a full language of about 40 metaphors around navigation, and illustrative examples around four key areas of work: policy, business, research, and creative domains. And with that, I think everyone can kind of relate to at least one of those. Many can perhaps relate to some, and a few could relate to just about all of them. So my hope is that you'll find yourself in that book as you journey through from page 1 to page 280.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah. Excellent. Perfect. So when people now say, "Hey, I saw the author, I saw the interview, I looked at his career," and they say, "I don't have this kind of massive international career. I'm more like a regional person, live in my city, still quite unsure what to do," some people wonder, what kind of read are they going to expect? Is it a must-have to have some sort of international experience, international career, or what kind of read can people expect with your book?
Danura Miriyagalla
You don't need to have international experience or wish to have international experience to read this book. What you'll find is that I use the international experience to draw on the fact that I could relate to many places, and therefore the examples that are provided are, in fact, very local. What you have is the confidence that you will see yourself in the book. I've lived in seven countries across four continents, and therefore I could relate to quite a number of cultural contexts.
Danura Miriyagalla
In your journeys, you will see uncertainty, and some of that uncertainty at the local level is actually because of international dynamics. So it is important to realize that even if you have a locally based career, the external context at an international level is affecting you, whether we like it or not. And therefore, understanding the international sector is just as important as understanding the local context. So your career, whether you shift from one country to the next or you don't, is actually driven or affected by the waves, the currents of the international sector. And therefore, I'd encourage you to see this book as something that you could relate to.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah, absolutely. What about the people who now say, "Hey, I don't struggle with making decisions because I make a decision and nothing seems visibly wrong. However, a couple of times I made decisions and wondered afterwards, well, I'm not sure if that decision was too wise."
Niels Brabandt
So when people say, "I don't struggle with decisions, however, quite often I had the experience that afterwards I wondered, was this actually the right way?" and I start to overthink what would have been if I had taken the other road. Can you give advice for these people with that book as well?
Danura Miriyagalla
Absolutely. I think this is one of the fundamental sort of principles of the book, which is that one needs to align with purpose. Often when one is moving from one career to the next, you think of very short-term things like, how much salary am I going to get? Or what's this role that I'm doing? Would I like it? But you need to think of your what's the purpose? What are three words, for example, that would perhaps give you the key meaning of why you are engaging in your work? It could be family, it could be financial independence, it could be some level of adventure, anything. Three words that would give you some alignment.
Danura Miriyagalla
And then everything that you do, every pivot that you make, every decision that you make, you must do so directing towards that purpose. So destination is not important, or the vessel that you use is not that important. It is the purpose that is important. What is that star that you're moving towards? What is the direction that you're moving towards?
Danura Miriyagalla
Sometimes you have a forced pivot. You have to shift. Something happens where you have to change. It doesn't mean that you've got to move away from the purpose. Sometimes the vessel has to move slightly away, but redirect it. Bring the values that you have. Think of the orientation of your values. What is the key purpose that you're working towards? And then align yourself towards that. And I think the alignment, the orientation, the direction, the purpose, all those factors will help you think through what exactly is the true meaning of why I'm working.
Niels Brabandt
Of course. Excellent. And of course, one question I have to ask: is it something where people can say, "When I read this book, I'm able to escape uncertainty for the foreseeable future," or is it more dealing with uncertainty?
Danura Miriyagalla
It's dealing with the uncertainty, Nils, because what you have in the world today is a constant increase of uncertainty, and the variables of uncertainty are also shifting and changing. Therefore, another key concept here in the book is that one should move away from the fact of trying to build certainty, trying to build control, trying to build perfection into one's career. It will not happen.
Danura Miriyagalla
There are leaders out there who try to build control and perfection and put a brave face and tell the team that, "I know what's going on. I have full confidence of all the information around me." It is rarely true. In fact, almost impossible to have that.
Danura Miriyagalla
Therefore, a true leader understands that uncertainty is the norm and that one has to take decisions based on imperfect information. One has to take decisions based on lack of control and move towards the kind of direction that is needed. And if you're a leader in a team, you have to think of the whole team as a whole, right?
Danura Miriyagalla
And if there's something that happens that creates uncertainty or further increases uncertainty, you can't step back and wait, nor can you just quickly take a decision where anything is okay. Again, aligning with purpose, directing one's vessel towards that direction is actually the key.
Niels Brabandt
Absolutely. Fully agree here. And of course, one question I have to ask at the end of this interview: when people now say, "Hey, I read the book and I think the Nura could be really important, either for me as a coach or for my organization as a keynote speaker onsite or online, or any kind of other help they want from you," how can people actually get in touch with you?
Danura Miriyagalla
Yeah, just look for me on LinkedIn. That's the best way to contact me. I would be more than happy to have a chat, and obviously there's a lot of resources that I can provide, and obviously a lot of guidance I could provide.
Danura Miriyagalla
I do provide this guidance not as something that comes from my experience. I have my own career, and obviously there are examples that I can provide, but I want to be very clear that this book and, of course, any advice that I provide is meant to be based on your own experience.
Danura Miriyagalla
And so these are not fixed models. They provide some level of guidance, but I give you the opportunity to then open up with your own questions, but also find the answers from within. So the answers are within you already, but I would just perhaps help you to find those answers.
Niels Brabandt
I think these are the perfect final words. "The Navigator's Pivot: A Reflective Guide to Work, Life, Changes," and it's the Nura at the end of this interview, at the end of this podcast and video cast. There's only one thing left for me to say: thank you very much for your time.
Danura Miriyagalla
Thanks so much, Nils. Thank you.