Avoiding the hidden costs of leadership debt

August 12, 2025

Two-panel graphic with abstract shapes and text; top panel has pink squares on a red background with the text “Systems don’t stay still. You’re either investing in them, or you’re decommissioning them.”; bottom panel has red triangles on a pink background with the text “Leadership skills shouldn't stay still either. You're either investing in them or we should decom…”

Technical debt is well recognised. But the same logic of ever-shifting organisational needs – and therefore the debt accrued by standing still – applies to leadership too. As a leader, your skills, models and culture operate as a system of their own, determining how well your organisation is able to adapt and respond to change.

Source: Avoiding the hidden costs of leadership debt

We tend to think quite a bit these days about technical debt and even the idea of product debt. But here Oli Lovell asks us to consider leadership debt.