Great leaders don't just lead well, they know exactly where they're stuck

Most leadership advice pushes you to do more:

More clarity.
More delegation.
More velocity.

But doing more doesn’t help when you’re solving the wrong problem.

You don’t need more output. You need a better diagnosis.

Great leaders don’t just lead well. They know exactly where they’re stuck.

That’s what makes forward movement possible.

It took me months to figure that out.

I’ve been working on my book framework since January.

Three circles: People. Performance. Passion.
At the center: Breakthrough Leadership.

It looked good on a slide. It made logical sense. But something was off.

Every time I tried to add depth, it got more complicated.

The model explained the what of breakthrough leadership, but it didn’t show the real problem leaders face:

Where they get stuck. How to get unstuck.

Then I found a better structure

I discovered Terri Lonier’s work on “signature frameworks” using a 2×2 grid (building on Kyle Adams’ approach).

It starts with three deceptively simple questions:

• What two forces are at play?
• How do they interact?
• What lives in the top right quadrant?

I gave it a shot. You can see my rough sketch here.

The hard part was identifying which two forces actually matter.

Here’s where I landed:

Horizontal axis: Capability – your team’s ability to ship, deliver, get things done

Vertical axis: Potential Impact – whether what you’re building actually changes outcomes

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The Four States of Product Leadership

Bottom-Left: “Stuck”

Your team is firefighting with no impact. Priorities shift constantly. You’re unsure what would move the needle, even if you could deliver it.

This is common when you’re new to leadership, inherit a broken team, or operate under unclear strategy.

Low capability to deliver, and low clarity on impact.

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Bottom-Right: “Spinning Wheels”

Your team ships constantly. Execution is solid. But nothing moves the business forward.

You’re in a Feature Factory.

You build what stakeholders ask for, but you’re not pursuing transformative work.

You’re optimizing, not innovating.

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Top-Left: “Handcuffed”

You see the breakthrough opportunity.

You know what would change the game.

But you can’t get it shipped.

Maybe your team lacks capability: technical debt, skill gaps, capacity constraints.

Or maybe you can’t articulate your vision in a way that enables your team to make progress.

You see it, but you can’t translate it into action.

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Top-Right: “Breakthrough”

This is where you want to be.

You’re shipping work that changes outcomes.

Your team moves at a sustainable pace.

Your influence grows.

You’re creating competitive advantage.

This is where all three dimensions converge: people + passion + performance.

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The Path Isn’t Random

Most leaders don’t jump straight to breakthrough.

They move through these states in recognizable patterns:

The Optimizer’s Journey

You begin stuck (bottom-left), build a solid team that executes well (bottom-right), then risk staying a Feature Factory unless you shift from satisfying requests to pursuing real impact.

The worst part is your team knows that they are working harder than ever, and their work is not making a difference.

To move from bottom-right to top-right, you need Passion + Performance. Identify what matters and build the systems to validate it.

The Visionary’s Journey

You gain clarity about high impact work (top-left), but you can’t get it shipped.

Maybe your team lacks capability.

Maybe you can’t translate your vision into being actionable.

You team is frustrated. The ideas are good, but nothing gains traction.

Moving from top-left to top-right requires People + Performance (building team capability) and often Passion skills (articulating vision effectively).

The Sustainable Breakthrough

When you develop strengths across People + Passion, you build natural authority. People follow you because they want to, not because they have to.

With People + Performance, you get team acceleration. They know what to do and work well together.

With Performance + Passion, you can create new categories entirely.

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Why This Changes Everything

The 2×2 diagnostic tool doesn’t replace my three-circle framework. It reveals what it was always showing.

Breakthrough leadership isn’t about excelling at three things simultaneously.

It’s about developing the specific combinations of skills that unlock movement from wherever you’re stuck right now.

• Stuck in the Feature Factory? You need Passion + Performance to recognize and validate what actually creates impact.
• Handcuffed by capability gaps? You need People + Performance to build team acceleration.
• Handcuffed by communication gaps? You need Passion skills to translate vision into executable work.
• Want to sustain breakthrough? You need all three dimensions working together.

The 2×2 helps diagnose where you are. The three dimensions show you what to build.

I’m still refining this (progress over perfection), but it’s already reshaping how I think about the book.

Start with the diagnostic.
Help leaders identify their quadrant.
Then guide them toward the right capabilities for their next transition.

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Find Your Development Path

Reading about the quadrants is one thing.
Knowing exactly which breakthrough skills to develop next is another.

I built an assessment that evaluates where you stand across all 9 breakthrough skills (the 3 skills in each of the People, Performance, and Passion dimensions).

It takes about 5 minutes and gives you a personalized profile showing:

• Your strongest breakthrough capabilities
• The skill gaps limiting your impact
• Your development priorities

It’s the same diagnostic I use with private executive clients, now available to you.

Take the Breakthrough Leadership Assessment →

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Help Me Refine My Model

Two quick asks:

1. Does this resonate with your experience? Which quadrant feels most familiar? What transitions have you made or are you trying to make?
2. Have you created a 2×2 framework or signature model? I’d love to see how you approached it.

Let me know what you think