Barely Treading Water

A senior engineering leader recounts a moment when their chief of staff delivered hard feedback: they were failing. The post identifies six warning signs of a leader who is 'barely treading water' and offers three concrete fixes. First, prioritize ruthlessly with a trusted colleague, expecting to move at least two-thirds of your list off your plate. Second, delegate aggressively — even to people who aren't fully ready — because something is better than nothing. Third, say no clearly to tasks that remain after prioritization and delegation, because an undecided task is worse than a declined one. The piece emphasizes that admitting failure is the prerequisite for all three fixes, and that the process of failing, learning, and improving is itself the leadership example worth setting.