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Leadership Doesn’t Always Give You Good Choices
Most leadership lessons don’t come from classrooms or conferences. They come from moments you never asked for, moments where you’re too young, too unprepared, or too overwhelmed to feel like the “leader” in the room. My own leadership journey began that way, in a steel mill services company I joined right out of college. What was supposed to be a summer job turned into a crash course in how work really works.
I started as a laborer. Ninety days later, I was promoted to maintenance technician. I learned to weld, fabricate, troubleshoot, and read blueprints. The company sent me to technical schools, and I absorbed everything I could. A year later, I was promoted again, this time to plant operator, and suddenly I was responsible for running the processing plant and directing the same crew I had just worked beside. I was in my mid‑20s. They were seasoned veterans. They didn’t want to take orders from me, and I didn’t want to give them. None of us wanted the dynamic we were stuck with.
One day, after a rough shift, an older operator pulled me aside and said something that changed my approach to leadership. He told me to stop telling people what to do and start asking them how they would do it. He was right. I stopped barking orders and started asking questions. The crew didn’t soften overnight, but they began leaning in. And I learned that leadership isn’t about authority, it’s about trust.
As I moved into supervision, the stakes grew. We prepared for crises that never came. We led through national moments that shook people to their core. I learned that leadership isn’t just operational, it’s human. It’s about the people doing the work, not just the work itself.
Years later, a strike hit one of our sister plants, and leadership turned into survival. Tension rolled through the region like a storm front. Operators were told to save their money. They didn’t want to strike, but they were told they might not have a choice. When the call finally came, they walked out, and the managers, myself included, had to keep the operation running. At first the picket line was almost friendly. But as the weeks dragged on, frustration turned into desperation. Paid protestors showed up. Threats started. Tires were slashed. Managers’ homes were watched. Local businesses refused service. Truckers wouldn’t haul our material. It wasn’t a strike anymore, it was a siege.
Then came the worst part: I had to terminate my own employees for unlawful picketing and violating the CBA. It poured gasoline on an already raging fire.
The union escalated by pressuring the stevedoring company to stop moving our barges, creating a bottleneck that threatened our customer, the steel mill. One barge was loaded and ready to ship. The Stevedore refused to move it. The mill demanded it be moved immediately. I was sitting in an excavator on the dock, watching an 800‑foot ship steaming toward us. The barge was in the way. The ship needed the dock. The stevedore wouldn’t budge and my heart was pounding. There were no good options.
A Decision Was Made
In an unexpected turn of events, the barge broke loose and it floated into the slip. The ship’s horn was blasting. The barge was drifting and I was praying. I called the stevedore and told them the barge had broken loose and was about to be rammed by an incoming vessel. They had no choice but to act. They recovered the barge and towed it to safe harbor, exactly where it needed to go.
I don’t tell this story because I’m proud of it. I tell it because leadership sometimes forces you into situations where every option is bad, and doing nothing is the worst option of all. Sometimes you have to act. Sometimes you have to take the risk.
Leadership isn’t clean, comfortable, nor is it always safe. But it is always about responsibility, for the people, the process, and the outcome.
LEADER’S TOOL OF THE WEEK
The “No Good Options” Framework
When every choice feels bad, use this:
1. Identify the catastrophic outcome.
What is the worst‑case scenario if you do nothing?
2. Identify the reversible option.
Which choice can be corrected later?
3. Identify the option that protects people.
Safety, physical or psychological, comes first.
4. Identify the option that protects the mission.
What keeps the operation moving?
5. Act decisively.
Hesitation is its own decision and usually the wrong one.
THE MANUAL PAGE (PDF Attached Below)
Leading Under Pressure
LeaderBoat Leaders:
1. Act when others freeze.
2. Choose the least bad option when no good ones exist.
3. Protect people and the mission.
4. Accept responsibility for the outcome.
5. Stay calm when the stakes are high.
Add this to your LeaderBoat Manual.
CAPTAIN’S REFLECTION
Leadership isn’t about having perfect options. It’s about having the courage to choose when the options are imperfect. You won’t always have time. You won’t always have clarity. You won’t always have support. But you will always have responsibility. And sometimes, responsibility means taking the risk, making the call, and releasing the barge.
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