Is your leadership team running on contaminated fuel?
I recently was working with a leadership team exploring how their leadership culture might be impacting organizational results. Their immediate numbers are positive … but the word on the street is that their top performers are burning out because of the pressure and pace.
The question we raised: are the short-term numbers masking what’s really happening? Is the data covering up long-term dysfunction?
That’s where the fuel analogy came in. You can put bad gasoline in an engine and it will get you some mileage. You won’t even know it’s a problem. But at some point the engine conks out and you’re stranded.
Were they running hard on bad fuel, blinded by the numbers?
Yes, they were achieving short-term results. But at what cost? And what would the long-term implications be?
Where would they get stranded?
For this team, the outcome wasn’t an immediate overhaul. It was a commitment to keep watching through ongoing accountability meetings and updated data. That’s the action: staying honest about what the numbers might be hiding.
It takes a strong team to be willing to consider how they’re impacting the organization, both positively and negatively. Acknowledging you’re running on bad fuel isn’t easy.
But the teams that do? They catch it before they’re stranded.
Hey there! I’m a leadership team whisperer, executive coach, and speaker. I guide leadership teams in high-growth companies to achieve rapid growth in a healthy, sustainable way. I coach senior leaders to discover the path to lead with ease.
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