Why Your Organization is Stuck: The Stage Most Leaders Skip

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Last quarter, I worked with a SaaS company that couldn't figure out why growth had stalled.

They had the strategy. It was solid.
They had the resources. Plenty of runway.
They had the talent. Great team.

But nothing was moving.

When I started asking questions, the problem became obvious.

The leadership team had never acknowledged the real issues - a product customers liked but didn't love, a sales process that was leaking deals, and a culture of "everything's fine" that prevented honest conversation.

They kept trying to fix execution problems without ever naming what was actually broken.

They'd skipped Stage 1.

There are four stages to organizational activation: Acknowledge, Align, Activate, and Amplify.

Most organizations skip the first one entirely.

Stage 1: ACKNOWLEDGE - Face current reality honestly.

It sounds simple. It's the hardest stage of all.

Because acknowledging reality means admitting things aren't working. It means naming problems that are easier to ignore. It means having conversations that feel risky.

So leaders skip it. They jump straight to strategy (Stage 2) or action (Stage 3) without ever honestly assessing where they are.

And then they wonder why nothing changes.

Leadership talks about challenges in vague, careful terms. "We have some opportunities in our go-to-market." "There's room for improvement in cross-functional collaboration."

Translation: Something is broken, and no one will say it plainly.

There's a difference between what's said in meetings and what's said in hallways. The real conversations happen after the meeting ends, in Slack DMs, over coffee.

If your best insights are happening off the record, you're stuck in Stage 1.

Everyone knows the product isn't where it needs to be. Everyone knows the sales process is leaking. Everyone knows that one leader isn't performing.

But no one names it collectively. Problems stay individual observations instead of a shared reality.

Optimism becomes a shield. "We're doing great" is the party line - even when the numbers say otherwise. Acknowledging struggle feels like disloyalty.

Acknowledging reality feels dangerous because it is.

It threatens identity. If we admit the strategy isn't working, what does that say about the people who built it?

It creates accountability. Once you name a problem collectively, you're responsible for fixing it.

It feels like failure. Especially for high-performers. Admitting something's wrong feels like admitting you're wrong.

So leaders protect themselves. They use vague language. They focus on bright spots. They keep the hard conversations private.

And the organization stays stuck.

Every week your organization avoids the truth, you're paying three taxes:

Energy tax: Your best people are frustrated. They see the problems clearly. When leadership won't name them, A-players start wondering if this is the right place for them.

Opportunity tax: You can't solve problems you won't acknowledge. Every week you avoid the truth is a week you can't start fixing it.

Trust tax: People notice when leaders won't speak plainly. Credibility erodes. The next initiative starts with more cynicism than the last.

Avoidance isn't neutral. Avoidance is expensive.

Create safety for radical honesty.

This isn't about blame. It's about clarity.

The goal is to create a space where the real conversation can happen - where people can name what's not working without fear of punishment or judgment.

Three ways to do this:

Anonymous assessment. Survey your team with questions that invite honesty: What's the thing everyone knows but no one says? What would you change if you could change one thing? Where are we lying to ourselves?

Facilitated session. Bring in an outside facilitator (or a trusted internal leader) to run a session explicitly designed for truth-telling. Set the ground rules: No defensiveness. No attribution. Just diagnosis.

Leadership goes first. The fastest way to create safety is for leaders to model it. Name something that isn't working. Admit a mistake. Show that honesty is rewarded, not punished.

The SaaS company I mentioned? Three months after they finally named the real issues, growth was back on track.

Not because they found a better strategy.

Because they finally told the truth about where they were starting from.

This week: Ask yourself honestly - has your leadership team had a real conversation about what's not working? Not the sanitized version. The real one.

If the answer is no, that's your starting point.

Stage 1 isn't glamorous. There's no framework to hide behind, no deck to present, no initiative to announce.

There's just the truth.

And everything else starts there.

Are you stuck in Stage 1 or further along than you think?

Take the 3-minute assessment to find out.

You'll discover:
→ Whether your organization is avoiding or acknowledging
→ The specific signs your leadership team might be missing
→ Your one move to create momentum this month

I facilitate the honest conversations your leadership team needs to have but hasn't. This is Stage 1 work - creating the safety and structure for radical honesty. Includes comprehensive assessment, facilitated diagnosis session, and action planning.

"The Stage Most Leaders Skip: Why Organizational Honesty Is the First Step to Getting Unstuck"

A keynote that gives your organization permission - and a framework - for radical honesty. Perfect for leadership summits and annual kickoffs.

A comprehensive diagnostic of where your organization is blocked, starting with Stage 1. Includes anonymous team survey, leadership interviews, and written recommendations.