Do this work BEFORE chaos hits
Leadership Ready Room Chats 4/22/2026
Most people treat transition like a tactical problem.
What’s the next role?
What’s the next move?
What’s the next source of income?
Who do I need to call?
What do I need to apply for?
That makes sense.
When life starts to feel uncertain, doing something usually feels better than sitting still. The problem is that urgency has a way of impersonating clarity.
You start getting quick feedback.
A conversation.
An interview.
A little momentum.
A sense that you’re moving.
And sometimes you are.
But that same urgency can crowd out the deeper work that would actually help you make better decisions in the middle of the transition.
Reflecting and answering questions like:
What matters to you now?
What kind of life you’re trying to build?
What values are going to anchor you when the old system is gone?
What parts of you still travel with you into the next arena, even if the environment is completely different?
That is what Tom and I explored in this week’s LRR Chats conversation.
A piece that stood out to me was this idea that many of us were trained to operate well in high-stakes, fast-moving environments. But in those environments, there were often built-in rhythms of reflection too. Planning. Debriefing. Sounding boards. Trusted peers.
Then a big transition hits, and people often try to carry the urgency forward without rebuilding the reflection. That can get expensive. Not just professionally.
Personally too.
If you know a shift is coming, the question may not just be what job is next. It may be whether you’re doing the reflective work early enough to recognize the right next move when it shows up.
Tom and I sat down this week to talk about that tension, the pull toward constant doing, the false clarity that comes with urgency, and why the right room can steady you while you sort through what matters.
The runway usually feels longer than it is.
-Jenks