You Can Feel It Before You Can Name It

You walk into a company for the first time.

No presentations yet. No dashboards, no org charts, no town halls. Just a few conversations, a glance at the office, and you already feel it.

It’s like getting into a car and hearing that subtle but unmistakable rattle. Or stepping onto a sailboat and sensing, even before casting off, that the wind, the trim, the balance, something isn’t quite right.

It’s not always dramatic. Sometimes it’s just a quiet discomfort, like background static. But it’s there.

Maybe the energy in the room feels… cautious. Maybe people answer questions by describing what they used to do. Maybe no one mentions customers. Or maybe everyone seems very, very busy. But no one can clearly explain what the strategy is.

You don’t yet know exactly what’s broken, but you know something is. And once you’ve felt that tension often enough, you start learning how to read it. How to decode it.

It might be the culture. Or the operations. Or a leadership disconnect, masked by politeness and PowerPoints. Often, it’s a strategy that was never properly articulated… or never truly believed.

But the signs are always there. You just need to know what to listen for.