Execution Isn’t Failing. Your Decisions Probably Are.

Hey, I see this pattern all the time with the leaders I work with.

Things slow down. Teams start hesitating. Momentum just… fades.

The knee-jerk reaction? “We’ve got an execution problem.” So you pile on more structure, hire another rockstar, roll out a new system or OKR framework. You double down on process because it feels like the fix.

But nine times out of ten? Execution isn’t breaking. It’s responding exactly the way it’s supposed to.

When the decision upstream is fuzzy—or worse, never fully made—execution can’t move clean. Teams feel the wobble. Priorities start to blur. Ownership gets soft.

Everyone keeps working. Motion keeps happening. Emails fly. Tasks get checked. But the direction? It’s quietly slipping away.

From the outside, it looks like people aren’t executing hard enough. From the inside, it’s usually a decision that was never locked in. A tradeoff nobody fully owned. A direction nobody said, out loud, “This is it. We’re going this way—even if it means closing these other doors.”

So the team does what smart people do: they protect optionality. They hedge. They wait for more clarity. They keep things reversible.

It feels like resistance, but it’s usually just caution.

And the hidden cost piles up quietly: Meetings multiply to “align.” Delegation gets weaker because nobody wants to own the wrong call. Initiatives start competing for air. Energy goes up, but clarity goes down.

Eventually you hit the wall and ask the exhausting question: “Why isn’t this working? We’re all grinding.”

Here’s the truth that stings a little: Execution is trying to carry the load without a clear decision to follow. That almost never ends well.

Strong teams don’t stall because they lack talent or hustle. They stall because they lack certainty about what matters most right now.

Fix the decision first. Clarity restores movement. Ownership restores speed. Alignment brings back trust.

It’s simple. It’s not easy.

So if execution feels heavy lately—like you’re pushing a boulder uphill—pause before you add another layer of process. Ask yourself (and your team): Have we actually made the call? Is the direction locked? Are we all willing to say no to the other good options?

Most of the time, the heaviness isn’t downstream in execution. It’s upstream in the decision that hasn’t been fully owned yet.

If that hits home, that’s exactly the kind of moment I help leaders cut through on the Advisory side. Check out the Advisory page if you want to talk about getting that clarity back—and the speed that follows.

You’ve got this. Just decide first.

What’s the one decision you’ve been hedging on? Drop it in the comments if you’re up for it—I read every one.