At the age of 16, Albert Einstein famously envisioned running alongside a beam of light, which resulted in his Special Theory of Relativity: time slows down. “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle,” he said, “requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”

March 14 was Einstein’s birthday. It was also Pi day, celebrating the irrational number beginning 3.14 that expresses the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, and this year March 14 was the day the acclaimed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died. How fitting: a nonlinear coincidence occurring in the realm of science, when we so often rely on predictability and analytics.

This convergence of events has led me to reflect on the often maddeningly nonlinear field of leadership and the ways it intersects with science. As with science, leaders must constantly raise new questions and new possibilities and regard old problems from new angles, constantly drawing on imagination.

In envisioning running along a beam of light, Einstein employed a technique that leaders can use to enhance their effectiveness.

This idea of traveling — or zooming — through time can help leaders immensely. What if you were to reframe your perspective and imagine your leadership dilemma as being resolved, and you are two years down the road looking back on the steps that resulted in that successful outcome? That ability to bend time can open up new creative opportunities. You can imagine what is great about the outcome, how it meets your criteria, and then speculate on the steps that got you there. And then begin implementing those steps real time.

Charlotte, a seasoned manager I worked with, had built strong relationships with her staff. She was feeling overwhelmed and was quite aware that Nancy, her manager and company CEO, was feeling overwhelmed, too. This was making everyone edgy. One of her challenges was being chronically short-staffed. As a result, she described feeling as if she were just grabbing for things like they were flying objects to keep them from landing and breaking.

One of Charlotte’s goals was to be more strategic in her own role and in her relationship with her manager. Nancy had also defined one of Charlotte’s goals as making better distinctions about priorities and urgencies — she shouldn’t consider everything to be urgent. But with the sensation of constantly grabbing for flying objects, Charlotte found that especially difficult.

I suggested that Charlotte zoom out to get a little distance from that feeling by imagining herself at a point in time three months into the future, and I asked her what she saw. She said she’d be fully staffed, would have succeeded in conveying to her staff that they are capable, competent, and they wouldn’t need to come to her as much. She could rely on them more fully. Moreover, since her staff could handle the day-to-day, she wouldn’t feel so scattered and torn and could focus more on being strategic. When I asked her how that felt, she said, “good.”