Sometimes Leadership Requires a Leap of Faith

‍ Photo by Roger Bradshaw on Unsplash

Many of us spend our days chasing efficiency. We optimize processes, trim budgets, refine workflows. This makes sense. Efficiency is measurable, predictable, mathematical. But chasing productivity can become a trap. When we're focused on doing today's things better, we sometimes miss the chance to do new and different things.

Emmanuel Acho's book Illogical: Saying Yes to a Life Without Limits captures this tension perfectly. The title itself is a challenge to conventional leadership thinking. We're trained to be logical, to make data-driven decisions, to minimize risk. Yet the moments that define careers and organizations often require something else—a willingness to embrace what looks illogical from the outside.

Charles Handy understood this when he wrote The Second Curve. Organizations follow predictable patterns: growth, maturity, decline. The trick isn't avoiding decline, it's recognizing that while you're still ascending the first curve, it's time to start building the second. That recognition rarely comes from efficiency analysis. It comes from paying attention to forces outside your spreadsheets.

While we're busy optimizing internal operations, the world around us is constantly changing. New technologies emerge. Customer expectations evolve. Competitors approach from unexpected angles. These inflection points demand decisions that the logic alone will not. The data supporting the old path is always clearer than the data supporting the new one.

Creativity starts when logic reaches its limits. Not because logic is wrong, but because it can only work with what already exists. Breakthroughs require imagination about what could exist. Leaders willing to step beyond the efficient and into the uncertain.

Career transitions work the same way. Whether you're choosing to move or circumstances force the choice, you face an inflection point. The logical path is to leverage existing skills, stay in familiar territory, and minimize disruption. Sometimes that's right. Sometimes it's exactly wrong.

Before competing, elite athletes train with discipline and a strategic approach. They study performance data from past events. They identify what leads to success. They build new capabilities before they need them. Then they step onto the field having earned the right to compete. After the competition, they assess what worked and what didn't, adjust their training, and prepare for the next challenge.

The same discipline applies to career inflection points. Look ahead. Decide what skills the future requires. Invest in building those skills before you need them. This investment rarely looks efficient in the moment. It divides your focus between current performance and building future capability. That's what makes it a leap of faith.

Critics will tell you to stick with what works. They'll point to the risks of change. They'll remind you of the opportunity cost. They're not wrong, there are real costs and real risks. But there's also a cost to staying on a curve that's about to decline. The question isn't whether to take risks. It's what risks to take.

Organizations and individuals both face this choice. We can optimize for today's game or prepare for tomorrow's. We can perfect our current approach or develop new capabilities. We can follow the proven path or chart our own. The efficient choice isn't always the right choice.

The next inflection point is coming. It always is. The question is whether we'll see it early enough to prepare, or wait until we're forced to react. For my money, the leaders who navigate transitions best are the ones who invest in preparation before the transition arrives. They don't wait for perfect information. They act on good-enough information plus strong judgment about where things are heading.

We should not abandon logic or ignore efficiency. Both are essential. But by themselves, they're not sufficient. Leadership at inflection points requires something else. It requires the courage to step beyond what we know today. It requires believing that preparing for the future matters, even when you can't predict exactly how it will play out.

Own your future by preparing for it. Follow your own path by deciding where it leads. Train before you compete. And when the moment comes for that leap of faith, make sure you've earned the right to take it.

Reference Articles

The Reward Comes First | Farnam Street

Global Marketing Expert: The Playbook Behind Every Great Campaign | The Knowledge Project

Raising the resilience of your organization | McKinsey & Company

Chips And Salsa: Bite-Sized News and Posts

Resolutions tend to focus on measures - lose 10 pounds, read 50 books, hit revenue targets. This conversation asks a better question: what will achieving that goal cost you? Goals can create tunnel vision that blinds us to better opportunities. Pursue your why, not just the measure.

How little experiments can lead to big success | TED

Ageism reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of how experimentation works. Without experience, you repeat experiments that already failed. Progress requires learning from what came before.

Why Older Workers Are Your Competitive Edge—Not A Succession Problem | Forbes

Competition helps us improve. Ruthless competition doesn't—it focuses on defeating others rather than becoming better ourselves. The best person to compete with is yesterday's version of yourself. Progress beats perfection.

Why are some people extremely competitive while others are so chill? | The Conversation

The Warner Bros. Discovery sale offers a case study in corporate strategy. These two articles present sharply different views on what it means for the industry.

Netflix deal for Warner Bros Discovery may eventually mean less variety for viewers | Marketplace

Monopoly Expert Says Netflix's Bid for WB Isn't Meant to Succeed—It's a Big Dirty Trick | Inc.

Our understanding of the planet keeps expanding.

Underwater robot survives voyage to 'never-accessed region of the planet' | Popular Science

For history readers: this list adds several worthwhile titles to the already-too-long reading queue.

For History Lovers: The Deep Roots of Business | American History Business Center

Research on aging continues to reveal new patterns. As lifespans extend, these findings matter more.

New study shows how your brain changes at four key ages: 9, 32, 66 and 83 | The Washington Post

Business planning with AI depends on the quality of your prompts. This example shows one approach.

Need a Business Plan? Ask AI | The University of Texas McCombs School of Business

Data center environmental impact generates heated debate. The subject is complicated and requires careful understanding.

You're Thinking About AI and Water All Wrong | Wired

Quotes

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

- Aristotle

"When you say 'yes' to others, make sure you aren't saying 'no' to yourself."

- Paulo Coelho

"It's never too late to be whoever you want to be."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Leadership is the most important work we do—in business and in life. I've spent over 40 years working with leaders across more than 100 companies, and I'm still learning. These newsletters share my thoughts on leadership today and what we can learn.

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