Tag: leadership growth

The Second Generation Is Where It Gets Real

The first version of almost anything is an act of discovery. We’re learning in real time, usually without understanding what we’re building. We don’t yet know which parts will matter, which ones deserve less attention, or where the challenges are.

The first version is shaped by assumptions. Some accurate, others incomplete. It’s often held together by optimism and a willingness to learn as we go.

The first generation isn’t meant to be polished or permanent. Its purpose is proof of life.

Does this idea work at all?
Do we enjoy pursuing it?
Is there something here worth continuing once the novelty fades?

Many ideas never move beyond that first stage. Excitement gives way to routine. Maintenance enters the picture. It’s decision time.

Is this something I’m willing to own, or was I simply exploring an interesting possibility?

If the answer leans toward exploration alone, the idea stalls, usually forever. It never makes the leap from curiosity to commitment.

That leap matters.

William Hutchison Murray said it well, “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy…the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.”

The second generation begins at that moment of commitment.

If we choose to begin version two, everything changes.

We’re no longer experimenting or learning if this idea works. We’re deciding that it matters enough to carry forward.

We’re operating with experience now. We’ve seen where effort was misdirected and where the momentum came from. We understand which details carry lasting value and which ones only seemed important at first.

More importantly, we own it now.

That’s why the second generation feels heavier. The weight of responsibility belongs to us. We know too much to pretend otherwise.

An idea that survives long enough to earn a second version has already passed an important test. It has encountered reality and endured.

The first generation asks whether something can exist. The second generation answers whether it should continue.

From there, our work evolves. Spontaneous ideation turns into direction. The purpose becomes clearer than the feature set. Identity begins to emerge.

This is how we do it.
This is what matters.
This is what we’re willing to stand behind.

The second generation is the foundation for everything that follows…far more than the first. It establishes patterns, standards, and expectations for what comes next.

Tackling version one takes courage. But finishing that version is only part of the journey.

The deeper test lies in beginning again. This time with clearer eyes, better judgment, and full ownership of what we’re building.

We move from discovering what we could build to owning what’s truly worth building.

Photo by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash

If you know someone standing at the edge of a second generation, feel free to pass this along to them.

When Leadership Becomes the Single Point of Failure

Some leaders wear the line outside their door like a badge of honor. People waiting with questions, approvals, decisions.

It feels like proof of trust. Proof of competence. Proof of necessity. If the team can’t move forward without your judgment, surely that means you are at the center of the work.

In many ways, you are.

But there’s a second truth hidden inside that scene. When every decision depends on you, you become the one point your organization can’t outrun.

The line reveals the fragility that forms when decisions stay in one place instead of growing across the organization.

At a certain level of responsibility, leadership effectiveness isn’t measured by the number of good decisions you make. It’s measured by whether the organization can make good decisions without you having to approve each one.

Leadership at this level is staying at the wheel while helping others learn to steer.

High-pressure operators know instinctively that a bad decision leaves a mark. A slow decision leaves a gap. Most organizations struggle more with waiting than with trying. That line at your door, day after day, is the quiet proof. The whole operation can only move as fast as the person at the center of its decisions.

There’s a time in every leader’s career when the instinct to take control is the right one. When the team is inexperienced, when stakes are high, when the risk is real and present, you become the center of gravity because someone has to be.

But later, if the business grows and the structure doesn’t change, this habit of control becomes limiting. What protected the organization early can start to quietly cap its potential, because your bandwidth is finite.

There’s a moment when the senior leader’s job shifts from “Do we have the right answer today?”to “Will we have the right judgment tomorrow?”

That shift feels slow. It feels inefficient. It feels like a luxury.

It isn’t.

It’s a protective move.

Teaching someone how to make a decision can feel like taking the long way around the problem. You could make the call in 30 seconds. Walking someone through the context and reasoning might take half an hour.

It’s natural to skip teaching and just decide. It feels faster. And today, it is.

But tomorrow it isn’t. Because they come back with the next decision. And the next. And the line gets longer.

Here’s a simple practice that changes the arc of your relationship without exposing the business to risk. When someone comes to you with a decision, don’t give the answer first. Ask them, “What would you do?”

You’re not surrendering the decision. You’re building their capacity to make it. You’re seeing how they think. You’re catching errors before they matter. You’re adding the perspective that builds judgment.

It is controlled delegation, not abandonment. Nothing is handed off recklessly.

When someone brings an answer that is close to right, you supply the context they don’t have, and then you say something specific and concrete:

“Next time this situation comes up, you can make that decision.”

Not in general. Not theoretically. For this exact decision, with a shared understanding of why it works.

Over time, the pattern shifts. Fewer decisions reach you. The ones that do are larger, higher consequence, more strategic. The team develops in the shadow of your reasoning, not separate from it. And the bench of judgment widens beneath you.

This is what protects the business from single-threaded leadership. Not a gesture toward empowerment, but a strategy of risk reduction.

Leaders don’t become less important by creating decision-makers. They become less fragile.

The organization becomes capable of sound judgment when you’re not there. The most durable form of control a leader creates.

If the business only works at full strength when you are present, you haven’t reduced the risk. You’ve concentrated it.

At the top levels of leadership, the question is rarely, “Can you decide?”Of course you can.

The real question is, “Can others decide well when you aren’t in the room?”

That’s the difference between being the operator and building the operation.

It begins quietly. A question reflected back. A recommendation explored. A context added. A decision shared. A leader shaped, one situation at a time.

The line at your door gets shorter and your organization gains strength. Not because you step away from accountability, but because you’ve built accountability into the people who stand in that line.

Leadership Homework

One question to sit with, without rationalizing it away:

If you disappeared for 30 days, what decisions would the organization be unable to make without you?

Not decisions they might make differently, different is acceptable. Decisions they could not make.

That answer will show you where the real bottleneck lives.

And where the next generation of leadership needs your attention.

Photo by Mal Collins on Unsplash – it’s time to help your team take flight.

Seeing What Comes Next

The difference between reacting to the moment and preparing for it.

Most leaders spend their days responding. A problem surfaces. They fix it. A crisis hits. They mobilize.

Urgency crowds out importance. By Friday they’re exhausted from fighting fires they never saw coming.

This is leadership without anticipation.

Every action sets something in motion.

-Launch a product without considering support capacity, and you’ll be drowning in angry customers in three months.

-Promote someone before they’re ready, and you’ll spend the next year managing the fallout.

-Ignore the quiet signals in your market, and you’ll wake up one day wondering how you got disrupted.

Some outcomes can be seen in advance. Leadership is the discipline of noticing what’s coming and readying your team to meet it.

Wayne Gretzky once said, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”Most leaders skate to where the puck was. They optimize for yesterday’s problem. They staff for last quarter’s workload. They strategize for a market that no longer exists.

Leaders who matter skate differently. They think past the first step and see how decisions unfold across time. When they make a choice today, they’re already anticipating the second and third-order effects.

They connect short-term actions to long-term outcomes, asking not just “Will this work?” but “What happens after it works?”

When you cultivate this habit of anticipation, something shifts. You stop being surprised by the predictable. You create space before you need it. You move with a quiet confidence that comes from seeing the terrain before you cross it.

Your team feels it too. It’s the difference between reactive and ready, between scrambling and intentional.

We can’t eliminate uncertainty. The future will always bring surprises. But we can change how we manage it. We can choose to be the leader who sees what’s coming rather than the one who’s perpetually caught off guard.

Dwight Eisenhower said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Plans will change. They always do. But the act of planning, of thinking through trajectories, testing assumptions, and imagining scenarios, prepares you to lead when the moment arrives.

The leader who anticipates doesn’t wait for clarity. They sense it forming and courageously move toward it. They shape the path while others are still reacting to it.

Photo by Aleksander Saks on Unsplash