The COO walked into the boardroom, exhaled a slow, steady breath, and took his seat. Around the table sat the rest of the C-suite. No one could tell he had just flown halfway around the world.

What they didn’t see: flight delays stacked up, a connection canceled, an overnight reroute that got him in just minutes before the meeting. He had barely 15 minutes to dump his bag, take a shower, throw on a suit, and walk straight into the fire.

For the next two hours, he was grilled on his part of the organization. A slowing market. Cost pressures. Transformation targets that felt just out of reach. Rapid-fire questions came from every corner of the table. He held his ground.

And when we talked later, he told me: That’s not what keeps me up at night. That pressure I can handle.

Where Urgency Gets Lost

What weighed on him wasn’t the board. It was the silence further down.

Because the urgency at the top — the need to move, to adapt, to act now — doesn’t survive the trip through the middle of the organization. By the time it reaches the front lines, it’s softened, filtered, and sanitized into meaninglessness.

What starts as a raging fire at the top feels like a flickering candle in a dark, windowless basement at the bottom.

He put it bluntly: We promote people into leadership positions, but too many of them don’t lead. They wait to be told. They play it safe. They say, “That’s how we’ve always done it.” Or, “It’s not me, it’s the other department.” Or, “We have to wait for them — it’s their job, not mine.”

Translation: “I’ll sit on my hands and blame someone else.”

That caution feels comfortable. But if you wait that long for urgency to sink in, you’re already toast.

It’s like a long freight train. The engine surges forward, but there’s slack in the couplers between every single car. It takes time, long slow minutes, before the caboose actually lurches into motion. By then, you’ve lost momentum and the candle at the back has blown out.

The Leadership Impact Ladder

This is why I teach what I call the Leadership Impact Ladder in my book Lead Like a CEO, out next week on Amazon.

It has nothing to do with your title or the size of your team. It has everything to do with how you actually lead.

• Rung 1: Doer – You carry tasks, but remain invisible.

• Rung 2: Helper – You save the day, but your team stays dependent.

• Rung 3: Informal Leader – People turn to you, but you lack leverage.

• Rung 4: Titled Leader – You own outcomes, but still solve everything yourself.

• Rung 5: System Builder – You coach, delegate, and design clarity.

• Rung 6: Culture Shaper – You don’t just manage work, you move the entire organization.
  

Too many leaders I meet are leading a rung below where they should be. They carry instead of owning. They maintain rather than building. They manage instead of leading. In other words, they’re playing small in a job that demands big.

One Rung Higher

Here’s the sticky phrase to remember: One rung higher changes everything.

• Move from helper to leader, and you stop catching flying knives and start setting direction.

• Move from titled leader to system builder, and your team stops waiting for you like baby birds and starts running without you.

• Move from builder to culture shaper, and you stop fixing potholes and start designing the highway.
  

Every rung you climb expands your visibility, your authority, and your impact. Stay stuck, and you’ll keep wondering why nobody takes you seriously.

Three Moves This Week

1. Name your rung. Be brutally honest. Where are you operating from today? Where should you be leading from instead?
   

2. Act one rung higher. If you normally fix, coach instead. If you normally wait, decide. If you normally suggest, own it. Stop hiding behind “it’s not my job.”
   

3. Close the gap faster. Don’t let the caboose lag. Push urgency down clearly and directly so your team moves with the same fire you feel.
   

Why It Matters

The COO told me he can handle boardroom pressure. What keeps him up at night is watching urgency leak out as it trickles down the ladder. If leaders don’t step into the role of CEO of their own area, the whole train slows.

You don’t need to leap the ladder in one jump. But one rung higher changes everything.

Want to see where you stand — and what it would take to climb? Download the free Lead Like a CEO Bonus Toolkit at jamessaliba.com/leadlikeaceobonus. It’s your early-access guide before the book launches September 30.