Leading through friction, the hidden load on today’s leaders

“I know what good looks like, but this feels way too hard.”

The ambition is crystal clear, we have a solid strategy and a highly capable team but progress is slower than it should be and energy is being burned in all the wrong places.

Not because your team isn’t good enough. Because the system you operate in isn’t set up for success.

The Provocation

We talk a lot about performance.  We talk far less about the conditions leaders are expected to perform within.

Because the truth is:

• Most systems weren’t designed for today’s goals

• Most leaders inherit complexity they didn’t create

• Most teams are navigating friction they can’t control

And yet:

👉 The targets don’t move 👉 The pressure doesn’t reduce 👉 The accountability stays exactly where it is

According to McKinsey & Company, up to 30% of productive capacity is lost to organisational complexity.

So here’s the real question:

What does great leadership look like when the system itself is part of the problem?

The shift that changes everything

Average leadership asks:

“How do I get my team to perform better?”

Great leadership asks:

“How do I help my team perform in this system?”

What this looks like in practice

1. Make friction visible

Name what’s slowing you down, not as complaint but as clarity.

Too often, teams create workarounds. They compensate and push through which often results in hiding the very problems that need solving.

Your role is to surface that friction and to elevate it. Then you can translate that noisy and painful friction into something actionable.

Don’t just absorb pressure. Make it useful.

2. Reset the standard

Stop measuring your team against a perfect system that doesn’t exist.

Clarity matters more than aspiration so be explicit about what success looks like in this reality not in the version of the business you wish you had or the one that's coming a few years down the line. This is important because misaligned expectations don’t drive performance, they quietly erode it.

3. Protect energy ruthlessly

No team can outperform a broken system on willpower alone. When ambition is high but the path is obstructed, effort increases but returns diminish.

That’s when burnout starts to creep in.

Your job is to notice where energy is being spent on the “system” rather than “outcome” and to intervene.

Sustained performance isn’t about pushing harder, it's about removing what’s in the way.

Final thought

You may not be able to fix the system, but you can shape how your team experience it,  and that’s the real leadership edge.  Some of the best leadership I see isn’t in high-performing, well-oiled environments, it’s in the messy ones where it really is like wading through treacle.  Yet, the team still moves forward, still delivers and still believes.

If this resonates…

This is exactly the work I do with leaders.  Helping them navigate complexity, cut through friction, and create the conditions for performance even when the system isn’t playing ball.

Fueled by creativity. Focused on results. For leaders ready to expand their impact.