From 'Great' to 'Good Enough'

Happy Thursday,

Most good leaders I work with feel this constant pressure to be remarkable. Big strategies. Big impact. Big leadership. But what if your team doesn’t need a superhero? But instead they need a steady hand. An Alfred to Batman, a Pepper Potts to Iron Man, or Etta Candy to Wonder Woman. Someone who enables others to be heroes, not always trying to be one. It goes against the usual leadership hype, so let’s talk about a different kind of strength and how a quiet Sunday morning reading back in 2019 changed the way I saw leadership forever.

🧠 LEARN something.

In summer of 2019, I was neck deep in my research into organisational leadership that I was doing with the Massey Business School. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon and I was wading through a ton of academic literature, journal papers, and textbooks when I stumbled across a chapter in the latest edition of Leadership Matters that caught my attention. It was titled ‘From Great to Good Enough’ by Tim Harle. At first glance, it felt like a cheeky stab at Jim Collins’ classic best seller ‘Good to Great’. But the more I read, the more it challenged my thinking. For years, scholars, influencers, and leaders indulging in a spot of nostalgia have focused on the part of leadership that’s bold, transformative, and world-changing. Indeed, the obsession with heroic leadership styles goes back centuries. But when we are constantly barraged by this idea in social media, books and podcasts, this obsession quickly warps our reality and the expectations we have of ourselves and other leaders; in a rather unrealistic and unhelpful way.

In his chapter, Harle argues that genuine leadership is found in the everyday. In routine interactions. In ethical decisions. In showing up consistently over time. Instead of chasing unattainable heroism, leaders should focus on current realities, embrace imperfections, and sustain their organisations in humane, ethical ways. This cult of greatness creates pressure, burnout, and a disconnect from what teams really need. Most leaders I work with feel that pressure. And honestly, I often want to say to them, “The answer is quite simple. You just don’t want to do it”. Trouble is, if someone wrote a book about the tried and tested “ordinary” stuff, no one would buy it. We all want the novel and untested stuff. But good enough isn’t a surrender to mediocrity, but instead a deliberate strategy. It’s reclaiming the value of consistent, reliable, responsible practice. Recognise the dignity in routine and maintenance work and shift focus from big interventions to steady stewardship. We’ve been sold leadership stories of what happens 1% of the time, and those stories aren’t serving us in the remaining 99% of the time.

🤔 REFLECT on an idea.

We know Michael Jordan for the on-court heroics and highlight reels. But in this quote, he wasn’t talking about the moments everyone saw on court. He was talking about leadership lived in the daily habits no one noticed. First in the gym, last to leave, treating every practice like the finals, and doing the hard, boring, disciplined work every single day. Leadership that’s earned through your choices and how you show up.

😊 SMILE a little.

Hero-leader syndrome is wild. You’ve got people out there trying to “disrupt the industry” when they the can’t even find 5min to approve the thing you’ve chased all for a month!

✅ DO IT to get results.

Make time for what I call ‘maintenance work’, an analogy that links back to my time as an engineer. This are the routine and often mundane tasks that keep your team steady, the system running, and the processes humming. It’s the leadership version of maintaining the foundations of a house. No one sees it, but everything depends on it. You can’t build something great if the base is neglected. Yet many leaders skip this, chasing the big and bold stuff, while ignoring the essential work that holds everything together.

So at your next team meeting or one-on-one conversation, try shifting the focus from “what big move should we make” to “what’s the maintenance work we have been avoiding?”. It’s deceptively simple, but surprisingly effective in the long run.

🌱 How we can support you and your team.

We provide strategic leadership solutions tailored to align with your business strategy, size, and budget. We can support your with:

• 1:1 Leadership and Performance Coaching

• Team Coaching, for high performing teams

• 1:1 Health & Lifestyle Coaching for busy stressed leaders.

• Workshops, offsites and team development.

• Or our flagship individual Leadership Coaching Programs.

Kia pai tō wiki

Kenny Bhosale

CEO & Founder, The Bridge Leaders