The Map Is Not the Field: Embracing Flexibility in Leadership

In leadership, we often hear about the importance of having a plan, a vision, and a strategy. These are indeed critical elements for success. However, there’s a vital truth that’s sometimes overlooked: the plan is the map, not the field. While the map serves as a guide, it’s not the reality you’ll encounter as you lead, adapt, and grow.

The Role of Vision in Leadership

At the core of effective leadership is vision. Vision defines where you want to go and why it matters. It provides clarity and direction for you, your team, and your organization. Without a clear vision, leadership can feel like wandering aimlessly through uncharted territory.

But a vision is only part of the equation. Leadership also requires building a culture that aligns with that vision. Your culture answers critical questions: Who are we as an organization? What do we stand for? These elements are the bedrock of sustainable leadership.

Detaching from the Plan

While vision and culture are foundational, many leaders fall into the trap of becoming overly attached to their plans. Planning is essential—don’t get me wrong. A well-crafted plan can organize your thoughts, prepare you for challenges, and set you on the right path. But plans are just that: a path, not the destination.

The world is unpredictable, and rigid adherence to a plan can be detrimental when circumstances change. Think of it this way: the plan is a map, an abstraction of the terrain you hope to navigate. The field, on the other hand, is messy, dynamic, and full of surprises.

Great leaders understand this distinction. They know that plans must be adaptable, not fixed. They set clear intentions and then focus on the process, adjusting their actions based on what the field presents.

Focusing on the Process

Leadership is not about guaranteeing specific outcomes—it’s about guiding your team through uncertainty while staying aligned with your vision. This requires a focus on the process.

Here’s how focusing on the process can transform your leadership:

1. Stay Present: Concentrating on the process helps you remain grounded. You’re less likely to feel overwhelmed by the enormity of long-term goals when you focus on the next step.

2. Encourage Learning: The process is where growth happens. Each step offers insights, lessons, and opportunities for improvement. By focusing on these, you and your team build resilience and adaptability.

3. Foster Flexibility: Being process-oriented allows you to pivot when needed. Instead of being paralyzed by a deviation from the plan, you can adjust and move forward confidently.

Building a Culture That Thrives on Adaptability

A leader’s role isn’t just to manage tasks; it’s to inspire and support others. Creating a culture that values adaptability is critical. This starts with open communication. When you’re honest about the uncertainties ahead, your team feels empowered to share ideas, collaborate, and innovate.

Flexibility doesn’t mean abandoning structure. Instead, it’s about creating a balance between clear goals and the freedom to adjust tactics. Encourage your team to see the plan as a guide rather than a rigid set of rules.

Lessons from the Field

Many of us have experienced times when our plans didn’t go as expected. Perhaps a project didn’t deliver the results we hoped for, or unforeseen challenges derailed our strategy. In those moments, what mattered most wasn’t the plan itself but our ability to adapt and keep moving forward.

Consider this: some of the most successful entrepreneurs and leaders didn’t achieve their goals through flawless planning alone. They succeeded because they learned to navigate the field. They embraced flexibility, prioritized progress over perfection, and remained steadfast in their vision.

Practical Tips for Leading with Flexibility

If you’re ready to lead with greater adaptability, here are a few practical strategies:

1. Set Clear Intentions: Know your vision and values. These will serve as your compass, even when the terrain changes.

2. Plan, but Don’t Overplan: Create a roadmap, but leave room for adjustments. A rigid plan can limit your ability to seize opportunities or respond to challenges.

3. Encourage Feedback: Build a culture where team members feel comfortable sharing their insights. Feedback often reveals blind spots and sparks innovation.

4. Learn from Setbacks: Every obstacle is an opportunity to learn. Use setbacks as a chance to refine your approach and strengthen your leadership.

5. Focus on What You Can Control: You can’t control everything, but you can control your response. Focus on taking the next best step and trust the process.

The Journey of Leadership

Leadership is an ongoing journey. It’s about having the courage to face the unknown while staying true to your values and vision. By recognizing that the map is not the field, you free yourself from the pressure of perfection. Instead, you embrace the reality of change, growth, and possibility.

Remember, the goal isn’t to follow the plan perfectly—it’s to lead with intention, adapt with grace, and create a meaningful impact. As you navigate the field, stay focused on the process and trust that each step brings you closer to your destination.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Coaching and Family Dynamics

03:27 Finding Balance as an Entrepreneur

06:26 Defining Business vs. Hobby

09:10 Clarity in Goals and Targets

12:04 The Importance of Perspective in Parenting and Business

14:58 Juggling Responsibilities: Glass vs. Rubber Balls

18:02 The Role of a Coach: Listening and Connection

Full Transcript

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (00:00)

We need to, as a leader, have a vision and build a culture for our company. And the cultures are with us. Who are we? Who do we stand for? But it's like, put the intention out there and detach from the process because you don't know what's going to happen.

Amanda Kaufman (00:33)

Well, hello and welcome back to the Amanda Kaufman show. And we are continuing our series on the coaches that don't suck. And when I think about that, my gosh, my friend Maurizio, this man is not only so experienced with entrepreneurship and with the dynamics of family and entrepreneurship, but he's also just such a complete gentleman. I remember when we met in a mastermind together.

I was just so impressed with his presence and with his connection that when the opportunity to jump on this podcast came along, you were at the top of my list, my friend. So thanks for being here, Maurizio. I'm so glad to see you.

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (01:17)

Thank you very much, Amanda, for having me. I'm thrilled to be here and to share this time with you and to serve your audience. I'm excited to share with all of them.

Amanda Kaufman (01:30)

I love it, I love it. Well, for the listener, why don't you just take 30 seconds and give us a quick background on you and what you do in business and what you're focused on right now.

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (01:42)

Great. Well, I do coaching, consulting and mentoring for entrepreneurs and family business leaders. So I help them grow their business and get organized and systematized so they can actually become from operators to owners. And through that development, don't leave aside, you know, like their personal life and their family life so they can really make the business work for them instead of being a slave of their business.

Amanda Kaufman (02:10)

That's so good. I think that's another reason that I really connected with you is because family is a huge value of mine. It's one of the big reasons that I became an entrepreneur and left the corporate American world was so that I could be more present with my family, travel on our terms, and so on. So, know, family is a big, big piece of success, in my opinion, and it sounds like yours as well.

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (02:35)

Definitely, and I've been traveling around with my family, being a stay-at-home dad and an entrepreneur at the same time, raising my kids. So I really value going from a workaholic to making a lifestyle that works for me, my wife, and my kids.

Amanda Kaufman (02:56)

That's so good. That's so good. Talk to me a little bit about how do you find that balance? know, I think, you know, there's a lot of newer entrepreneurs that listen to this podcast. There's also a lot of established entrepreneurs who struggle with that that B word, the balance. And I actually just heard one of my favorite influencers was saying balance. You know, it doesn't exist. If you want to do something great, you can't be in balance. And I was like,

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (03:22)

Yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (03:25)

I'm going to agree to disagree there or or I'm going to agree with you that greatness is important, but greatness in your family is as important, more important than greatness, even in business is my personal take. I'm really curious, though, about how you look at this. And when you're helping your clients navigate the balance of being a present parent and also being like fiduciarily responsible with your business, what would you say they should be thinking about?

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (03:27)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

I think it's a topic, so we need to be clear on that. It doesn't exist. I think it's more of a, what's the priority? What's the main focus at the moment? So when you're on a big project, you will be focusing more there. But then if you have the flexibility, you can then go to the baseball game or to the theater piece or to the teacher's conference. So you can allow yourself to...

be flexible and be present where you need to be. Because otherwise we put so much pressure into ourself that we are frustrated and we are unhappy and we are overwhelmed because it's just a topic. It's just an idealistic thing that it's good as an idea, but to take it as a reality, we really need to ground and be no.

that we are not gonna be perfect in any of those areas. We just need to be mindful of what is the very best thing that I can give and where is the best place that I can focus at this very moment, which will change over time. It's very dynamic. So I think it more of an integration and not allow your business to kind of kidnap you or

Amanda Kaufman (05:10)

Mm-hmm.

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (05:15)

not be so, yeah, know, yeah, family is great and everything's great, but we are not developing the business so it becomes a hobby and it's not a real business.

Amanda Kaufman (05:24)

So good. just especially for the newer entrepreneurs, what is the difference between a hobby and a business?

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (05:33)

Yeah, that's a great question because you know, when, when things get real, many entrepreneurs chicken out, they freak out and they say, I don't play anymore. Or we play with the idea of being an entrepreneur, but we are actually are not an entrepreneur because we are, you know, working on projects all the time. So I plan to do this and I think of doing that. And this is what I'm going to do next.

But what is it what we are actually doing? So for me, it's, you know, what are the, what is your short term that aligns to your vision? Cause we can have a vision and we should, and we all need goals to, to, go there. But what are the steps, the steps that we need to take there? So, definitely, you know, sales, it's, it's a key topic.

on this thing and getting real and honest with yourself. You don't have to be a million dollar company. You just have to do something that resonates with you and that fits your lifestyle and your wants and needs. And you know, this idea of, we're going to grow so big. That is not for everyone. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Coaching is not for everyone. We just need to be clear.

Do we really want to do this? And onto what stand? And how can you really...

Design it in a way that works for you and you're not again a slave of your of your venture

Amanda Kaufman (07:04)

I love this, this is such a great conversation because...

I think a lot of times when people are at the beginning stages of building something or pivoting, they struggle, I think, with clarity. know, clarity of exactly where they're going. Sometimes it's driven more out of a drive away from pain, which is honestly, in my opinion, a fine place to start. But if you just sort of stay with I'm running from pain, I'm running from pain, I'm running from pain, and you don't have like this clarity about what is it that you're meant to create? What is it that you're desiring to create?

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (07:27)

Yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (07:39)

And how are you taking meaningful progressive steps forward that each of those projects that you're working on it's impacting processes, you know, it's impacting a process of sales a process of lead acquisition a process of your fulfillment in your customer journey like

Are you just doing stuff to be seen to be busy? Or are you doing stuff that is specifically lining up towards a target? And you can't hit a target when you don't know with clarity what that target is. And we hedge. Yeah.

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (08:11)

Yes. Yes, I agree, Amanda.

And you know, there's people great like you that are, you know, have all these systems in place and, and, and know all the automations and, and you really, really put the processes on, but some people are more unstructured. we need to be, you know, know that we don't need to, to hit this again, this utopic idealistic kind of thing that, we're not.

Some of us are more messy. So embrace that. Yeah, for sure. We need a vision and we need to build a culture. think those are two main topics of any entrepreneur. We need to, as a leader, have a vision and build a culture for our company. And the cultures are with us. Who are we? Who do we stand for? But it's like, put the intention out there and detach from the process because you don't know what's going to happen.

Detach from the result. mean, just focus on the process and the next step.

because we don't know what's going to happen. And sometimes we get too attached to the plan. And we know planning is great. We all should have a plan. We all need a plan. But that's a guide. That's not the actual world. It's a map. It's not the field.

Amanda Kaufman (09:26)

that's so good, it's the map, it's not the field. You know what's coming up for me as you bring that up is, I think sometimes we confuse the reality, right? Because here's what you get to know. You get to know the target, right? So you can define that, you can decide, okay, this is the target, this is the thing I wanna aim at. You get to know the result of your plan.

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (09:36)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (09:53)

Like you get to know, know, like, okay, let's say I had a target. I wanted to grow my Instagram to a million followers. I am nowhere near a million followers. I'm just saying like that. I get to define that. I get to decide like, is that something that I want to do? Great. Okay. Now you get to decide what are the steps you're going to take to get to a million followers. And then you get to take the steps and then you get to find out where did you land? And whatever number you landed on,

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (10:06)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (10:22)

Okay, now the most important step, and this is the part that people kind of gloss over, what did you learn? Right? Because it is a rare thing to get a million of anything without having iteration and process and learning and growth as you actually do the thing.

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (10:31)

Yes.

For sure, for sure. And all this, you know, the startup world, it's like we all need to be, you know, big scale. We don't. There's someone for, there's market for every target. There's market for every provider. There's a market for you out there. But I go even on another thing that those measures, those targets, in the sense of what was my goal,

Some of them are for vanity purposes. We need to differentiate what is vanity and what is really matter because yeah, we could have hundreds and thousands of followers, but is that bringing business to your venture? Is that what really are you serving? Are you doing what you really love? Because we get so attached to those goals that they make our ego go bigger, but

Amanda Kaufman (11:12)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (11:36)

Am I serving the one that I have writing from and I'm serving the one that needs my help? And then from the financial standpoint, it's like the revenue. yeah, let's drive the revenue. Yeah, but what about profitability? We forget about that. So revenue, it's more vanity than, you know, profit is more sanity, but then cashflow is reality. We need to get it back to what it's really matter. So don't get lost on all those.

Should we should do this and that because what matters at the end is are you building something that you you're passionate about that you're enjoying or are you a slave again of you know whatever society or other people outside is telling you that you should do? Yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (12:22)

Someone else's vision.

Yeah,

you know what's coming up for me too is like as a mother, when I started out, I started as a step mom, you I got a little bit of a head start as a step mom. And then I had two more of my own. And early on, I did the same thing as a mom as what you're talking about a business owner does, you know. So a business owner will look at somebody else's business, somebody else's vanity metrics that are super easy to see, somebody else's brand or whatever. And they'll be like,

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (12:34)

yet.

Amanda Kaufman (12:53)

I'm not that, so I'm not there. I'm not worthy. I haven't done it. I did the same thing with parenthood, right? I was like, what's the definition of a really amazing mom? And I put so much energy and time in the earlier days especially into things that ultimately I discovered really didn't matter to either me or my husband or my children. And it was because I was defaulting to these models or these perceptions that I had about what was perfect.

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (13:01)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (13:23)

What is that? What's that ideal? What is that goal? And I was forgetting to ask, yeah, but what's mine? Right? What's mine? What's important to my husband? You know? Yeah, please.

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (13:31)

and I'm gonna tell you a story about that.

because sometimes we feel that we're behind and something happened just last week. I was not hitting the targets that I put myself into. I was having some sales calls and some of them were not as effective as I expected. But then we have the Parent Teacher Conference and we had this feedback.

for our two daughters. I have two daughters, 14 and 12, both girls. And you know, my wife and I, were connecting on these calls. was like, receiving feedback of what we were doing. And they told us time and again, guys, I don't know what's going on in your home, but you're doing something that is remarkable because your kids are doing great at school and they're happy and they're kind and they're doing their work and they're on the theater, on the music.

And we were like, my God, this felt our hearts so much. We were filled with this joy of, yeah, maybe we didn't hit that business target. But yes, what is most important for me? mean, and for some people it's going to be the business and that's okay. But for me, I know that I wanted to be a present father. And that's why I took the decisions that I took for going out from Venezuela.

and living abroad and following my wife's corporate career and looking for a way to do my business to make it portable because we're moving around the world from Switzerland to Brazil to Italy now. And I said, my God, this is what I was hoping to get. is for me, it's a short term versus long term. My kids are having the tools that they need for life. And this for me is a lot more relevant than

Amanda Kaufman (15:23)

Mm.

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (15:27)

if I hit my sales target or not. So I think we can put things in perspective and that's what we coaches do.

Amanda Kaufman (15:37)

Exactly. mean, like that's one of the great things that we get to do in relationship with our clients for sure. You you're reminding me of, you know, I've been so lucky in so many ways. And one of those ways was I worked for 10 years in one of the largest consulting companies in the world. And I'll never forget this little bit of personal development wisdom before I got way nerdy on personal development. This was much earlier days.

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (16:05)

you

Amanda Kaufman (16:07)

and it was a senior manager at the time.

who said, you know, your life, it's like you're juggling all these different balls, but one of the balls is made of rubber. One of the balls is made of glass, right? And your job is really to understand like which one, which one is that? And you know, for me, family is glass, right? Not that I need to be like, it's not, it's like that tempered glass that they use in bars. Like it's, it's a good solid glass. But the point is that I want to be careful when I'm, when I'm juggling, thinking about my marriage, thinking

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (16:26)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (16:40)

about my kids, it's like, okay, where can the glass shatter and what's going to bounce back? And you know, the thing is, is with a business, there's so much pressure, I think sometimes when you're setting those targets to make them,

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (16:52)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (16:54)

Seeing the future and nobody can see the future. We can make a very educated targeted guess Right, but there's gonna be factors that go into the whole process that it's gonna be north or south of that target And that is the game of business right is to then go back and be like, okay, so it's a rubber ball That's what I'm saying. It's a rubber ball

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (16:58)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes. Yes.

Yeah, and I'm working with a client right now. He's a mathematician. He's an entrepreneur as well. And he was a dean of a big university in South America. And now he is, you know, in other places. And he told me because he worked on the venture capital and he was telling me this is fiction, know, we number, we can do whatever. So

Again, what is the real world and what's the fiction of it? And definitely we are juggling all the time. And that's part of life. We have this fantasy idea, this utopic idea that we're going to need to be perfect everywhere. Where's the ugly? Where's the bad part of yourself? Where are your shadows? What are the things that you need to embrace?

where you are neglecting. think we as coaches, need to really, you know, put that out there and make it more realistic because of course there are gold standards, are procedures, are indicators, there are many things, are best practices and we all want to, you know, have that but as a reference we have our own kind of things and I'm telling you this Amanda because I was

so much into studying. know, I have a master's degree. I have two MBAs, you know, one in family business and one in business regular. I'm a business and administrative bachelor. So I was doing all of these. And then I was doing these, certification as a family business consultant. And then as a coach. I was like, all right, all of this. And what is it? Why is that people is not executing what we already know?

And that's why I lean a lot into coaching and I wanted to, to understand more the human behavior and what was behind all of that. And the term coach today, it's, it's weird, you know, because yeah, it's, it's become like a, like an standard for when someone is helping someone else. I think coaching it's, it's really a methodology and it's helping people to give a perspective of what you're doing. So if we are not.

opening it up and seeing other lenses, we kind of get again the tunnel vision of whatever, know, corporate America or any career that have a specific way of being. And we are not in that time. We're in integration time. We're in a moment that we are putting the pieces together. And I think that's part of my role here. I'm putting the pieces together, helping people to organize.

their life. I'm not Marie Kondo. I'm not going to put you in boxes. I'm going to help you get out of the box because we are trapped in boxes in a way. try to think, especially marketing, you know, it's important because we need to communicate clearly. But we're not in a box anymore. We are beyond those boxes. Those boxes don't feed us anymore. That model was very useful for some time. Now we are in another time.

Amanda Kaufman (20:00)

Haha!

I agree. love this. I was actually doing a live stream earlier today and I defined perfection is an obsession with a single point of view. Right. And really our job is to open perspective and as a coach it's really important personally but it's also the thing we do for others. Maurizio, what are three things that you feel help a coach in particular not suck?

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (20:48)

my God, I love this question. I think the first it's listening. And we need connection. That will be the second one. ask, don't tell. And that's something I practice with my kids too. I got that from positive discipline. I did a course so many years ago and that's, we start telling, you know, this and that. And that's something we need to be aware of coaches.

because we.

what we are, it's helping people to see themselves in our mirror. And we are, we're putting the mirror to themselves so they can see themselves and we can re say what they just said. Or we can, because we, we have the temptation of give more content or give content, but that's not a coach. mean, the coaching itself, it's about listening. It's about asking the question. It's about helping people.

find their answers, their answers. We and enable, we enable them, we facilitate the process, but they are the ones that need to have the breakthroughs. If I tell them this, I'm ruining the magic. So.

Breathe and wait because in the silence there's wisdom, there's infinite possibilities.

Amanda Kaufman (22:08)

So good. So good. Maurizio, what's the best way for people to follow you?

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (22:12)

well, in my Instagram, at Mauro Chaparro, that's M-I-U-R-O-C-H-A-P-A-R-R-O, or you can look for me, Mauricio Chaparro, on LinkedIn as well.

Amanda Kaufman (22:24)

I love it. love it. Well, we'll make sure to include that in the link below in the show notes. Listener, go ahead and share this episode with three of your friends who need to hear that they can have more balance. They can have more broadening of perspective as they're building their business and as they're creating their next version, whatever that happens to be for them. And go ahead and subscribe so you never miss another episode. And also do us a favor.

and leave us a five-star review because it helps others find the episode and choose it among the different options. Thank you so, so much, Mauricio. We will see you again very soon.

Mauricio Chaparro @maurochaparro (23:05)

My pleasure. Well, just keep going. That's my motto in Spanish. Solo avanza.

Amanda Kaufman (23:13)

I love it. Just keep going. I love it and do what matters. That's mine. We'll see you very soon.