We have determined whether we need a minor course correction or a completely new course. With approximately a quarter of the year left, we are sprinting to finish 2024 strong. We are sprinting when we have already been running hard all year. Marathon runners strive to run their fastest 10k (approximately the last quarter of a marathon), twenty miles into their race. This form of stress and pressure strengthens us, our teams, and our companies, but nothing is easy about it.

Recently, a founder decided to shorten and refocus a board meeting from 2025 strategic planning toward the significant milestones the company needed to accomplish before the end of the year. “The entire team has been working hard, but we are months behind schedule and have slipped weeks more since our last board meeting.”

We work and live in a world of constant change and increasing complexity, which requires our ability to adapt, update our priors, and change course and speed by applying a better approach to our unique situations. We often praise people for their consistency, yet variability, versatility, and flexibility are equally valuable. Be deliberate about using the right tools for the right situation at the right time.

At that same board meeting, the founder said, “we have been experiencing ecstatic highs and suicidal lows within minutes.” It is emotionally draining when something works and then doesn’t, especially when we are gearing up for a big milestone launch. The first time the founder made the statement, the board accepted it as fact, but when the words “ecstatic highs and suicidal lows” were repeated a few more times, we questioned whether we should be defaulting to those words or amplifying the sentiment.

Things are advancing, but not as quickly as we had planned. The team is sprinting and already hard on themselves with every setback. Is it time to amplify the team’s emotional state? Perhaps we should spar with the team during “ecstatic highs” to see around corners to reduce future setbacks and be a shock absorber during “suicidal lows” by helping our team remove bottlenecks.

Situational awareness is critical to leading teams through complex challenges. Once we understand the situation, we want to pick the most effective tools for our circumstances. Do we want to amplify or dampen the team’s emotional state? Should we be a sparring partner or a shock absorber? Will we need a jackhammer or a scalpel to most efficiently and effectively achieve our goals?

Be deliberate, not a default.