Most leaders don’t need a fixer. They need the discipline to reset decisions before an external consultant is forced to do it for them.
Why do leaders wait until a program or initiative is in trouble to hire a consultant to do an assessment, uncover the problems, make recommendations, and develop a corrective action plan?
The problems are usually known, but leaders aren’t listening.
They wait until there’s nowhere left to hide and no one else to blame. A key milestone is missed. Unfinished work piles up. Excuses increase. Finger-pointing begins. Only then does the reset happen.
Why is this?
This is where most leaders stall. When you’re close to the work, several things happen.
Bad decisions become “committed plans.” Asking for help feels risky. Sunk costs make change feel reckless. Hard conversations get delayed. And visible activity gets mistaken for real progress.
Everyone senses something is off, but few people step in to change it.
Let me give you an example when I helped turn around a high visibility corporate initiative that was behind schedule and over budget. When I interviewed the program manager, he explained the schedule and budget overruns like this: “This program is too large to be managed with project management software. It can only be tracked using spreadsheets and slide decks.”
Did he really believe that or did he just not know how to establish the needed project management controls for a program of this size and complexity? Was he afraid to ask for the budget to put in this level of oversight? Was he worried about looking bad? I’m not sure but other people on the team had given him the same feedback multiple times.
We put proper controls in place, built an integrated program schedule, replanned the work, and delivered the remaining critical milestones on time and within budget.
The original leader could have taken those same actions. He chose not to.
This pattern shows up far more often than people want to admit.
When outside consultants are brought in, they aren’t tied to ego, corporate politics, or fear of how decisions will be perceived. They focus on root causes, state facts plainly, recommend changes, and help execute a new plan.
Because their recommendations are presented without emotion - just statements of fact - they’re often accepted quickly.
Here’s the key point: you can do the same thing.
Most failures aren’t sudden. They happen slowly and are usually avoidable. External consultants rarely uncover brand-new information. They act on truths that teams already know but haven’t confronted.
Will some feelings get hurt along the way? Will some people feel uncomfortable? Probably - but the actions people were (or weren’t) taking are often the very cause of the problem and need to change for the work to be successfully completed.
The important point is this: leaders can apply the same approach themselves.
Most failures aren’t sudden. They happen slowly and are usually avoidable. External consultants rarely uncover brand-new information. They act on issues teams already know but haven’t addressed.
When things aren’t going well, ask yourself:
Ask this question today:
“If an outside consultant were brought in tomorrow, what would they change first?”
Then ask:
“What is keeping us from doing that ourselves?”
What areas aren’t going well for you right now? Maybe it’s a project that isn’t going well. Or maybe it’s one person on your team who isn’t carrying their weight.
Put yourself in the role of an external turnaround consultant or leadership coach and ask what actions you should take.
Chances are, you already know what to do. Stepping into the outsider role gives you the clarity and permission to act.
If this resonated, you’ll appreciate my latest book, Practical Leadership: A Guide for Building Trust, Getting Results, and Changing Lives. It offers practical tools, frameworks, and processes for the real situations leaders face every day.
Order your copy of Practical Leadership today!
Warm regards,
Janet Ply, PhD
Author, Practical Leadership
www.janetply.com
Schedule a free problem-solving call with me at janetply.me. Connect with me on LinkedIn.