Exploring Leadership Support Options
- Jamie Pulliam
- 4 days ago
- 8 min read
If you haven’t taken the assessment, you can do it anytime! It’s a 5-10 minute form. If you want to see the introduction article, head over here.
Below is a light synthesis of each domain to help you assess which support areas might be good to look into.
Read about the areas where you found the most checked boxes.
1. Decision Clarity
(Where thinking load is the constraint)
If several of the statements in this section resonated, it suggests that the primary strain right now is not effort or capability. It’s cognitive load.
When decision clarity is the main constraint, people often feel:
mentally crowded
pulled in multiple directions
unsure which discomfort is useful information and which is a warning sign
When these things show up, the first thought founders have is that something is wrong (usually, thinking they did something wrong). Not the case!
It typically means the business has outgrown the way decisions are currently being held. Which is most often a good sign - growth brings change, and the ripple effects sneak up on us.
What tends to help at this stage:
Support that creates clean thinking space. Where decisions can be slowed down, examined, and owned without being rushed or outsourced.
It's the whole "slow down to speed up" paradox
This is often where advising as a modality helps the most, particularly approaches that are focused on:
strategic sensemaking
leadership decision clarity
pattern recognition across time
separating signal from noise
What often doesn’t help yet:
More tactics
Premature execution
Being told what to do
Speed for the sake of momentum
Those will increase pressure when clarity hasn’t landed yet.
And counterintuitively, this is usually where people follow urgency the most. It usually doesn’t feel like it will be okay to slow down. This is where you consider how close you’re being pushed to burnout. Definitely get support (whether officially or not) before you get close to burnout. Coming back into balance is much easier if it’s not from a crisis point.
A note on timing:
If you’re so depleted that even reading these statements feels like too much, that’s important information. In those seasons, relief or containment needs to come before clarity work. That means not beginning advising until you can dedicate at least an hour every other week.
2. Structural Strain
(Where systems, design, or organizational shape are the constraint)
If you had a lot of boxes checked in this area, it suggests that the primary constraint right now is most likely structural.
Structural strain shows up when:
growth has been real and earned
complexity has increased faster than design
the business is relying on workarounds instead of systems
This is a very common inflection point. And I want to make it clear: this is not a failure. It’s a signal that the business is asking for a new shape and the transition hasn’t completed yet.
What tends to help at this stage?
Support that focuses on designing/refreshing the system is usually warranted, such as:
operational or organizational consulting
workflow and role clarity
growth structure or capacity planning
translating strategy into structure
When clarity and structure are built together, pressure drops quickly. This is because the system begins to carry more of the load.
What often doesn’t help here:
More personal effort
Pure mindset work
Advising that stays abstract without structural follow-through
These supports can feel very validating but they leave the strain intact.
A note on sequencing:
If decision clarity also lit up strongly, it’s often helpful to orient first - then design structure.
If clarity feels solid and structure does not... consulting, structural advising, or embedded support will likely be the more effective first move.
Regardless of which support you choose, be sure that it is not someone from the outside creating the systems without you and your team.
This work needs to be done internally. Support can help, so you choose what type. But if capacity & energy are also strained, be very careful paying for help that you don't have time to engage in. That will create a dependence, or leave you with a system you can't actually use.
3. Capacity & Energy
(Where human limits, not motivation or skill, are the constraint)
If this is one of your most checked areas, it suggests that capacity is a constraint right now.
When capacity is strained, even good support feels like more pressure. This happens when you’ve been carrying too much for too long.
This stage often shows up as:
mental fog without obvious cause
resistance to adding anything new
difficulty engaging in reflection
What tends to help at this stage:
Support that reduces load or increases margin, such as:
relief or redistribution of responsibility (internally)
temporary containment or stabilization
narrowing focus rather than expanding it
doing a brain dump (seriously! Just get all the things out of your head and visually in front of you - in whatever way is most intuitive to you)
This strain means waiting on deeper strategic work until there’s room to engage fully. Trying to engage in strategy when you do not have the capacity will never get you good strategy.
What often doesn’t help yet:
Consulting (even if they can come in and do it for you, the work will not outlast them)
Adding commitments framed as “growth”
Expecting yourself to think your way out of exhaustion
Those steps create false starts and usually also self-judgment. Things that will only further drain your capacity.
A note on overlap:
If decision clarity also resonated strongly, the right support can sometimes create capacity. But only if it’s paced very carefully.
If capacity is the dominant signal, stabilizing first often makes everything else possible later.
4. Execution & Ownership
(Where follow-through, delegation, or role clarity are the constraint)
If this section is dense on your assessment, it suggests the primary constraint right now is likely execution and ownership.
In this stage, leaders often:
know what needs to be done
have made the key decisions
but remain over-embedded in the work itself
This is less about strategy and more about who is responsible for what - and how that is balanced.
What tends to help at this stage:
Support that focuses on doing, delegation, or role transition, such as:
hiring for specific functions
fractional or contract support with clear ownership and delivery tracking
operational handoff or role clarification
The goal here is not to distance yourself from the work. But to delegate and ensure appropriate ownership across your company.
What often doesn’t help yet:
More reflection without redistribution
Revisiting decisions that are already sound (this happens so often, it’s hard not to do this when ownership is a constraint)
Carrying execution out of habit rather than necessity (priorities get mixed up)
Those all stall progress and deepen fatigue across the business.
A note on sequencing:
If decision clarity feels solid and capacity is relatively stable, execution support is often the most efficient next step (ideally internal hires or independent contractors who work with you and your team).
If capacity is also strained, adding execution support can restore energy by removing load. Though, bringing in more support means more management is needed. So plan thoughtfully.
Deciding which direction really depends on your business and the specific factors you’re navigating. If something drew your attention when reading through the ‘what helps’, consider how that would fit first!
5. Readiness for Partnership
(Where timing, posture, and engagement style matter)
So this is a section to help you assess if you are ready for some kind of strategic support. If you’ve got a lot of boxes checked for this section, it suggests that you are likely ready for partnership-based support.
This kind of readiness is not about having everything together.
It’s about having the capacity and being willing to engage, reflect, and stay present - especially when clarity takes time.
When readiness is there, support will:
compound over time
build internal capacity
strengthen your leadership
What to consider at this stage:
Support that is collaborative and participatory, such as:
advising
consulting
bringing on a new vendor
These approaches work best when responsibility stays shared and accountability (on both sides) can stay intact.
A note on timing:
If this domain didn’t resonate strongly, that’s not a problem—it’s simply information for you to consider (or ignore!). There are seasons where relief, execution, or stabilization are the right focus. Partnership work can and should wait until there’s room for it.
Where Advising Should Not Be Recommended
Let’s just say what we’re both thinking: I’m a business advisor which means I have an incentive to push advising. That’s not my style, but if you don’t know me, you should not blindly trust that.
So, I’m including this section to ensure the ethics are clear 🙂
Here are very common times when people think an advisor could help but, in my opinion, it definitely does not…
1. When clarity is already there, but capacity is not
If you:
know exactly what needs to happen
have made the decision
keep stalling because you just have too much to do
➡ Hiring or fractional execution is the right recommendation, not advising.
2. When structure is the primary constraint
If you:
are scaling fast
have operational breakdowns
are firefighting because systems never caught up
➡ Consulting (when you have capacity) or embedded ops support (when you don't have capacity) comes first.
Advising before structure here would feel abstract and quite frustrating. It could even derail things, depending on your circumstances.
3. When energy is too depleted to engage
If you:
can’t slow down without collapsing
feel totally overwhelmed by even the idea of reflection
are in survival mode
➡ Containment, relief, and rest are the recommendation. Not advising or consulting - these supports need you to be able to engage.
4. When someone craves answers, not partnership
If you:
want certainty, fast
are wishing someone could just tell you what to do
think you may default to outsourcing decision making
➡ Advising is explicitly the wrong fit.
No shame if one of those is relatable! We've all been there. I put this in because it sets you up to become dependent on someone during moments that you need to be able to depend on yourself. There are times advising can really help with building that capacity, and times when it does the opposite.
Outsourcing leadership is not something that anyone specifically asks for “you know what, I want someone else to just make all my decisions for me.” It’s a much more sneaky thing. There are so many reasons that this can happen. We’re all susceptible, so I want to draw your attention to it.
If you are craving this, look back over the other areas to see which strains are pushing you to it. Addressing those with a clear goal should help get you to a place where you have space to make decisions.
And just keep this on your radar ;) That way, you don't end up falling into a dependency when getting the support that you deserve to have.
The key frame
When you are considering working with any consultant or advisor, your decision should not orient to “Do I need a consultant?” / "Do I need an advisor?"
Instead, I recommend that you ask:
“Where is the primary constraint in my system right now? And what support would help me address that?”
Advising is one possible response — and only appropriate when:
the constraint is clarity
you have enough capacity to engage
partnership (not rescue) is desired
That’s what will lead to you getting solid support out of the engagement.
Whatever direction is right for you, I wish you luck on your journey!
