Absorb ambiguity, don't pass it down

Why this rule exists

Ambiguity flows downhill unless someone stops it. When leadership above you is unclear, the easy move is to relay the confusion straight to your team, hedging and shrugging, so their anxiety mirrors yours. But your job is to be the place where uncertainty gets metabolized. You take the murky, contradictory inputs and hand down something people can actually act on, even if that's just a clear next step and an honest 'we don't know the rest yet.' Passing raw ambiguity down doubles the anxiety and halves the work.