Leading Leaders: Juggling Crystal and Rubber Balls

Helping Your Best Leaders Strengthen Judgment Without Losing Initiative

When you lead leaders, clarity becomes a core part of the job. You are no longer the person who solves every problem. You become the person who shapes direction, names patterns, and helps your leaders make strong decisions without adding noise to the system.

The more senior the leader, the more tempting it is to believe they should manage everything independently. The more capable the leader, the more tempting it is for them to try. But leadership at scale doesn’t work in the extremes.

Over years working in senior roles, I noticed two escalation styles show up again and again:

1. Leaders who bring every update or decision forward, waiting for approval before moving.
   Their intention is safety. The outcome is slower execution.
2. Leaders who handle everything on their own and only surface when the risk is already visible to executives, customers, or other teams.
   Their intention is ownership. The outcome is surprise risk.

Neither style is wrong in intent. Both create friction in practice. One slows momentum. The other multiplies risk. And both can chip away at confidence because expectations are blurry.

Why Capable Leaders Carry Too Much

High performing leaders often hold too many “balls” at once. They want to be thorough. They want to be prepared. They want to show they can manage it all. What they don’t see while juggling is the cost:

• Decisions take longer because the noise is louder than the signal
• Judgment spreads thin instead of deep
• Confidence erodes because clarity on what matters most is missing
• The real risks get buried under updates that didn’t need airtime

And the irony? The more a leader tries to hold, the more likely the most important priority slips.

This idea of crystal and rubber balls came from watching exactly this happen in teams and in my own leadership load. It started as a work tool, and over time it became a life tool too.

Where This Idea Came From

Years ago, I was leading large, complex transformation work. I promoted a stream lead who was a brilliant subject matter specialist and stepping into leadership for the first time. They saw patterns earlier than most, connected dots intuitively, and had the kind of judgment I wanted to grow into leadership strength.

But they escalated everything. My mornings started with urgent text messages. My evenings included too many “quick calls”. Any gap between my day of back to back meetings was filled with messages asking for decisions that they could have made, but they wanted a final review. And I could feel both of us burning capacity instead of focusing our energy where it mattered most and would have the biggest impact.

It wasn’t sustainable for either of us, so we tried something different:

1. We separated the rubber balls first
   Decisions they could make confidently once guard rails, outcomes, and risk tolerance were defined.
2. Then we named the crystal balls
   Issues where another view mattered or where the risk was close to affecting scope, people, timelines, or stakeholders.
3. We agreed on timing
   Not too early, not too late. Early enough to protect the business, late enough to preserve initiative.

The result?

• They stepped into a steady leadership rhythm
• I trusted they would bring the right issues forward without prompting
• And I stopped getting pulled into every bounce and could focus on broader priorities

That moment shaped my leadership view forever. It taught me that clarity isn’t control. It’s shared accountability and confidence.

How to Bring the Lens Into Your Team

Here are the areas where alignment makes the biggest difference when leading leaders:

• Which decisions they own end to end
• When to escalate, and the early signals you expect
• How their outcomes connect across teams and executive priorities
• Where they operate independently and where visibility protects the business
• How risk is communicated so it doesn’t surface as noise

One question anchors this faster than any document or process:

“Which of your priorities are crystal, and which are rubber?”

It opens a real conversation and helps you understand where they are at. It lets leaders think with you instead of for you or without you. And it creates space for judgment to stay sharp.

Reflections From Coaching Leaders Today

In my coaching work now, I see this lens land especially well for Directors and VPs who are managing other leaders for the first time. They are navigating:

• wanting to show mastery while learning delegation
• managing former peers without overstepping
• and leading teams without needing to be the bottleneck

The leaders who grow most confidently are not the ones who hold every ball. They are the ones who know which ball matters right now and who needs to hold it with them.

And when leaders learn to sort their priorities with confidence, something else shifts too:

• They communicate risk earlier and with more precision
• They trust their own judgment more
• They lose less sleep over decisions that can bounce
• And they create space to lead other leaders the same way

A Weekly Practice You Can Start Now

This week, try this:

1. Book 30 minutes with each of your direct leader reports
2. Ask them to list their top 5 priorities
3. Sort them together into crystal vs rubber
4. Agree on when and how visibility works for you both
5. Confirm the signals you want them to bring forward

You don’t need to wait for annual planning, performance reviews, or end of quarter. Judgment sharpens through repetition, not perfection.

Closing Thought

Clarity is not approval. It’s confidence. It’s shared understanding. It’s discernment. And it’s one of the kindest ways to lead leaders without slowing them down or leaving them alone with risk.

When you know what to escalate and what can bounce, you stop juggling blindfolded. And your crystal balls stay intact a little longer.

Regular alignment conversations protect what matters, keep judgment sharp, and give capable leaders the space to lead without carrying it all.