Leadership Debt

In product teams, everyone talks about technical debt. The shortcuts you take in code to move fast today, that slow you down tomorrow.

There’s another kind of debt no one talks about. One that doesn’t show up anywhere, and is almost never recognised.

Leadership debt.

Every leader takes shortcuts. The problem isn’t the shortcuts. It’s ignoring their cost. Real life is messy. Most situations live in the grey.

There’s no playbook that tells you when to hold firm and when to bend.

Sometimes taking the shortcut feels like the only way forward.

Saying yes to every project to avoid uncomfortable prioritization gives you marginal to mediocre results instead of one big win.

Promoting a strong performer who’s not ready keeps them around for another year, but unsettles the team. Now they wonder what it really takes to be promoted. That lack of clarity becomes a slow drip of talent leaving.

Centralizing every decision feels faster in the moment, but over time, you end up spending all your time making micro decisions instead of big, high-impact ones.

Leadership debt doesn’t come from bad intent. It comes from urgency. From wanting progress.

From wanting it too much that they do so much.

It might make sense in your head, but to your team, it feels unpredictable. Directionless. Reactive.

Every deferred decision, every avoided conversation, every half-explained strategy accrues interest.

You can pay off technical debt with refactoring.

Leadership debt needs rebuilding of trust, clarity, and conviction.

And that’s a far more expensive repayment plan.

So the next time you put off a 1:1, make sure you reschedule.

Some conversations can’t be kicked down the road forever.