At least the elk are giving fair warning. Can you say the same about your leadership team?
Elk jams are a regular occurrence here in Evergreen–it’s a legit excuse to be late to an appointment.
It’s not every day, however, that they set expectations so clearly. Touché, elk, touché.
Unexpected delays that haven’t been communicated is one of the biggest challenges that I hear from leadership teams. Leaders say everything is sunshine and roses, but then dates slip and the downstream impact is real.
What’s missing? It’s not a flashing sign.
It’s trust. Trust is missing. It takes trust across the team for leaders to be willing to be vulnerable, to acknowledge issues and admit mistakes.
How do you build the trust? Not by the CEO saying it needs to be so. In fact, that can easily become a trust barrier. You build it through time, intention, curiosity, and honest and direct conversations. That’s what it takes to build relationships.
And when you have trusting relationships on your leadership team, when you care about each others’ success and believe that you’ll support each other when you stumble, you can feel safe to say “Hey, expect delays.”
No magic bullet. You have to put in the work. And if you put in the work, you get stronger results, even with delays.
No flashing sign required.
PS – Not an AI image. I took this about a mile from home.
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