#leadership-decisions

#leadership-decisions

These places have incredibly sophisticated performance frameworks, coaching programs, design systems, review processes. They've invested years into building cultures where the average quality bar is high and talent is supposedly evenly distributed across their teams. And yet. When something orbit-shifting comes up, a decision that could reshape their trajectory, a gnarly opportunity they need to nail, leadership doesn't just route it through the normal channels. They call the same handful of people. Every single time.

When Sam, the founder of a fast-growing tech company, came to see me, he was exhausted. For over a dozen years, he had poured everything into his startup, building it up to hundreds of employees and revenues nearing a hundred million. But as market shifts and new technologies gave rise to fierce competitors, growth had stalled... and so had Sam. In our sessions, Sam vacillated between two poles. At times, he would slump in his chair, shoulders collapsed, voice flat: "I'm thinking of just quitting."