Standing in the Seams

This reflection came from a season of noticing where effort was being absorbed instead of designed. It’s for leaders who are excellent at holding things together and are starting to wonder what that quiet responsibility is costing them.

The last few years taught me something I didn’t fully see until I stopped moving.

For most of my career, I’ve been good at standing in the seams.

When resources were thin, priorities unclear, or timelines unrealistic, I filled the gaps. When something was about to fail, I plugged the holes. The work moved forward, the outcomes landed and the machine kept running.

There were rewards….real ones. Growth, trust, visibility.

And there was also a cost, usually paid quietly, with time, energy, and health. I didn’t question it for a long time.

I’ve noticed that certain words tend to show up for me as I move through different seasons of life and leadership.

Last year, that word was grounding. Finding steadiness and driving alignment while everything was moving fast. This year, the word I keep coming back to is container.

Not in a symbolic sense, but in a practical one: clear systems, defined ownership, and boundaries that allow work to move forward without one person absorbing all the impact.

Here’s what became clear as 2026 began:

When you’re always the person holding things together, the system never has to learn. It just leans harder. Heroics feel responsible. They’re often praised. And they quietly delay the work of building processes, clarity and capacity that actually scale.

This year, I’m practicing a different discipline. This sounds obvious when you say it out loud. It didn’t feel obvious when I was doing it:

• Letting friction surface long enough to be designed out

• Replacing “I’ll just handle it” with “what needs to change so this works without me”

• Investing in systems instead of absorbing the strain personally

I’m not doing less meaningful work. I’m doing more sustainable work. Because the goal isn’t to be indispensable but to build things that endure.

Here’s to 2026 and leading in ways that work for people and the systems they’re part of.

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This is the kind of work I support in coaching. Creating clarity, boundaries, and structures that don’t rely on personal depletion to succeed, especially during seasons of transition, fatigue, or identity shift.