Most leaders are drowning because they refuse to climb

I got engaged at the top of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse in North Carolina, twenty six years ago this summer.

If you've never climbed it, it's worth doing at least once. It's the tallest brick lighthouse in the country, 198 feet, and getting to the top means climbing 257 steps in a tight spiral staircase. Your legs know about it the next day.

And it's worth it! The views from the top stretch for miles and miles, ocean on one side, the Outer Banks curving out on the other. Standing up there, you can see things you'd never notice from ground level.

The lighthouse doesn't rescue anyone

A lighthouse never leaves its post to go pull a ship out of trouble. It just stays lit and stays exactly where it is, so that every ship out there can find its own way past the rocks.

As leaders, we spend a lot of time thinking about rescuing. I see it constantly with my clients. They get so pulled into the day-to-day weeds of running the business that they never make it back up to the top of their own lighthouse.

Being down in the weeds sometimes really is the right move. Staying there for good is what wears people out. I've watched clients try to carry their whole organization on their backs, answering every question and touching every project, until they're exhausted and running on fumes.

What helps a team more is a leader who spends real time looking out from above. Someone people can actually find. Not buried three layers deep in your inbox for six hours while the team waits on a decision.

This Week's Challenge

• Where have you been rescuing lately when the better move might have been standing still and staying visible?

Here's to being easy to spot from far away,

Jena