It fails because leadership lets it blur.

Most plans are fine. Priorities are agreed. Milestones exist. On paper, it all holds together. Then pressure ramps up and something shifts. Decisions slow. Momentum leaks. Things that mattered start competing with things that don’t.

That’s often called execution drag. It’s usually clarity slipping.

Growth, change, or a reset quietly raises the bar. Pace increases. Tolerance for ambiguity drops. Choices that once felt acceptable now carry more risk. The problem isn’t ambition. It’s discrimination.

Too much stays live. Too many calls get talked around rather than made. Meetings end with nodding heads and everyone doing something slightly different afterwards.  I often see activity layered on top of the plan, as if motion will bring strategy to life. 

This is where leadership actually shows.

Not by rewriting the strategy, but by enforcing clarity. Being explicit about what matters now, what can wait, and what is no longer up for debate.

When that happens, progress restarts without drama.

When it doesn’t, activity increases and impact falls.

The hard question is rarely “is the strategy right?”

It’s where leadership clarity has eroded and no one has named it.