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It’s been another hectic week of podcast appearances and prepping for some guest articles for other publications (I’ll share more info as they come!), and so it was a bit of a surprise to get a thoughtful message from someone completely outside of all that busy-ness.
In my LinkedIn DMs, I received a message from someone I hadn’t talked to in years. I’d always gotten along with this former colleague well, but we just fell out of touch, as people often do.
He’d recently read one of my recent LinkedIn articles on public sector transformation – also found on theRiskInsider.com – and he wanted to write to me to tell me how much he liked and appreciated the viewpoints.
So, am I sharing this just to say someone liked my writing?
No. (But I still hope they do! 😜)
This quiet comment from the past really made me reflect on something I’ve experienced so many times before.
Project Leadership Isolation Is Real — Even When Others Agree
Sometimes, when we are the only ones to call out an issue, all we “hear” is silence.
Maybe it’s at an important committee meeting, and we could be pointing out the most obvious problems in the world – at least to us. To make it worse, we’re not highlighting risks and issues just to put anyone down: we genuinely want a project or initiative to succeed, and we just want to warn everyone about what could happen.
That silence can feel extremely awkward, and it can force us to think that we might be crazy: after all, how is possible that no one agrees with me?
But silence doesn’t mean that you’re the only one thinking it.
Everyone in the room might actually be thinking, “I’m glad someone said it!”, but maybe they’re just biting their tongues.
Why the silence? A few possibilities:
- You’re commenting directly on a suggestion from their boss, and they don’t want to show up their manager;
- You’re pointing out a flaw that everyone realizes they should have caught much earlier;
- Everyone had gotten so used to feeling good about the project, no one stopped to think about what could go wrong!
Not Alone – Just Early
There are hundreds of reasons why you alone might be the only voice of reason in a room.
But that doesn’t mean you’re the only one who thinks it — just the only one willing to say it. That’s what project leadership isolation often feels like.
And who knows? Even if everyone decides to disagree with you in the moment, you might just get a note from one of those people down the road, telling you how much they value your insight.
Because truth and strategic thinking can’t stay silent forever — and neither should isolated project leaders.
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