Over the last several months, I’ve been in deep discernment around a particular transaction. I’ve listened carefully to counsel from every corner of the business—internal and external—and sat with perspectives that challenged, affirmed, and stretched me.
What I’ve realized is how many of us hesitate to do anything that feels different from what we’ve already done. Not because we lack courage, but because we don’t know what we don’t know. That fear is understandable. Familiar paths feel safer, even when they limit future growth.
Leadership, though, has a way of forcing clarity. At its core, leadership is about making hard calls. Sometimes those calls work out. Sometimes they don’t. Either way, you live with the consequences of the decisions you make today.
In recent weeks, I reached a level of clarity that allowed me to articulate—very clearly—what I would need to see in the next iteration of the decision framework to move forward… or to permanently table it.
What this decision really tests is the fabric of the business. Are we willing to stretch—to do something a little different—and put the strategy, execution, and discipline behind it? Or do we choose to lean into the core business as it is and forgo diversification into an adjacency?
Either path can be right. But when you think like an owner, when you think like a steward, you’re compelled to stretch your imagination around what’s possible to ensure the asset continues to grow into the future.
This is one of the quiet tensions of leadership. Leaders nearing retirement may hesitate to invest. New leaders may hesitate to risk early security. Yet the leader among leaders is expected to decide—one way or the other.
And for the clarity to see that plainly, I’m deeply grateful.