The strategic skill every leader needs

Image generated by Gemini for ProFound Talent

Terri is a thought leader in Digital Journal’s Insight Forum (become a member).

As told in the book “The Longest Day,” Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, consulted his meteorologists again.

The armada he commands is the largest in human history. Five thousand ships, ten thousand aircraft, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and the liberation of Europe wait for a break in bad weather. They had already turned back once because of rough seas and thick cloud cover.

The day’s forecast was a gamble. It might clear just enough, long enough. Eisenhower gathered his expeditionary leaders for a final conference, hearing them out on their thoughts. One observer said he was “struck by the isolation and loneliness of the Supreme Commander.” After gathering their opinions, Eisenhower fell into a long silence, staring down at his clasped hands on the table.

Then, Eisenhower looked up and slowly voiced his decision: “I am quite positive we must give the order. I don’t like it, but there it is. I don’t see how we can do anything else.” He stood up to leave and prepare. Tuesday, June 6, 1944 would be D-Day.

At some point, every leader faces their own version of this moment. Few of us will ever shoulder the weight of the world’s fate like this, but all of us know the dread that comes from heavy decision making or carrying uncertainty.

Letting go should be simple, but it never is.

As Eisenhower showed, the greatest leadership skill isn’t force of will, charm, or devil-may-care bravura. It’s the ability to decide and release what we cannot shape any further. To commit and stop suffering the decision is what leadership looks like.

If I could wish one thing for every leader as 2025 closes and 2026 begins, it would be this: learn the discipline of letting go. Treat it as a strategic muscle you exercise and build over time. Because our minds are like that, we can shape and strengthen ourselves by what we think and do.

Suffering the consequences

According to Deloitte and PwC’s leadership outlook reports, 2025 has been defined by tension and high-wire acts, with leaders facing simultaneous workforce strain, cost pressure, supply chain uncertainty, and disruptive technology shifts.

Across Canada, nearly half of professionals now say they feel burned out. Seven in ten report that their mental health has taken a hit and it’s affecting their productivity. The United States isn’t faring better, nor is the UK. And can we even talk about the pressures others must feel in, say, the Ukraine?

Everywhere you look, people are carrying the inward idea that they should just carry on, be able to handle anything, trying to control the pressure in an ever pressurizing environment.

Seneca once wrote that “He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.”

That line could have been written for this year.

Stepping back

The end of a year like this has a way of tempting leaders into a final sprint.

Just one small win.

But leadership maturity is the opposite impulse.

Miyamoto Musashi, the undefeated swordsman who lived his entire life in conflict, wrote: “In strategy, it is important to see distant things as if they were close, and to take a distant view of close things.”

In other words: step back. Release your grip. Let the mind widen so the path ahead can come into focus again.

Letting go is the precondition for cultivating personal and leadership power, and organizational intelligence.

When leaders release what isn’t mission-critical:

Decision cycles shorten
Cognitive overload drops
Teams shift from reaction mode to performance mode
Innovation returns because fear loosens its hold

Letting go shifts company culture from survival back to contribution.

Eisenhower understood it on the eve of D-Day. Seneca understood it in the fading days of Rome. Musashi understood it in the quiet between duels.

And it is the leadership skill we need now.

Is it really necessary?

Leaders it seemed spent most of 2025 absorbing shocks and trying to keep up, if that was even possible. Markets jittered. Talent pools tightened. Workloads swelled while budgets thinned. And AI sped past us into a future we are trying hopelessly to catch.

In the face of so many challenges competing for attention, it’s worth remembering what Marcus Aurelius once advised himself: “ask of every thought, is this necessary?” This was the mindset of a man asking himself to look for clarity to lead better.

For us today, the question is the same: what competing and unnecessary thoughts burden our ability to lead?

Shedding the weight

“It is wonderful what great strides can be made when there is a resolute purpose behind them,” said Churchill.

The courage to continue doesn’t come from force, which is why some of his clearest thinking happened from his bed as much as it did in the war room. Endurance starts where clarity begins, when you put down what no longer deserves to be carried.

Every executive I’ve worked with who grew through difficult years learned this skill. They discovered that their role isn’t to carry everything, but to remove obstacles in the way of what matters.

Three places for current leaders to start:

Release false urgency: not every issue deserves an emergency.
Release perfectionism in a volatile world: perfectionism is just procrastination (and worry) in disguise.
Release inherited expectations: if a priority is only a priority because it once was, it isn’t anymore.

Eisenhower understood this. He knew he couldn’t command the tides or the clouds. He could only choose a course and trust his judgment. Then he left the rest to the resolve of his men and the winds of fate.