Strategy Sickness, Part 2

Every leader shows symptoms when strategy turns toxic.
The names change — startups, corporations, ministries, funds — but the patterns don’t.
Here’s the field guide to nine kinds of strategy sickness and the leaders who carry them.

No judgment. Just diagnosis. Because you can’t heal what you won’t name.

1. The Identity Addict (“I Am My Strategy”)

Your strategy is your identity. You’re the “______ guy.” It’s who you are, not what you do.
Symptoms:

• Over-identification with one idea, method, or brand.

• Personal offense when anyone challenges it.

• Nostalgia for a version of success that’s long expired.
  Antidote: Remember you’re a person, not a platform. You can change your mind and still be yourself.

2. The Fundamentalist (“This Is the Only Way”)

Your conviction has calcified. You believe you’ve found the one true method — moral superiority in a PowerPoint.
Symptoms:

• Rigid thinking; allergic to nuance.

• Dismissive of differing models or contexts.

• High burnout in the people who follow you.
  Antidote: Trade certainty for curiosity. Truth expands when you hold it with open hands.

3. The One-Trick Pony (“It Worked Before”)

You had a big win once, and you’ve been replaying it ever since.
Symptoms:

• Treats every new problem like an old victory.

• Defends the past instead of designing the future.

• The playbook hasn’t evolved since the last reorg.
  Antidote: Retire your greatest hits. Every new era needs new instincts.

4. The Time Capsule (“Business Is Business”)

You’re living in a museum of past glory. Strategy hasn’t evolved because the calendar hasn’t changed in your head.
Symptoms:

• Proudly references what worked “for decades.”

• Suspicious of technology, culture shifts, or new voices.

• Team quietly disengaged but too polite to say so.
  Antidote: Visit the present. The future doesn’t hate you; it’s just waiting for you to show up.

5. The Alarmist (“Everything’s Changing!”)

You’re perpetually on the brink of apocalypse. Every new wave is “the end of everything.”
Symptoms:

• Hyperactive pivots.

• Constant reorganization and rebranding.

• Exhausted teams and short attention spans.
  Antidote: Calm down. Not every tremor is an earthquake. Lead from signal, not noise.

6. The Copycat (“If It Worked There…”)

You borrow brilliance but forget to contextualize it.
Symptoms:

• “I read this in a book…” becomes a leadership mantra.

• Blind replication of others’ success stories.

• Resentment when it doesn’t translate.
  Antidote: Steal principles, not playbooks. Strategy without context is cosplay.

7. The Junkie (“One More Fix”)

You’re hooked on the high of the new thing — the next consultant, model, or fad.
Symptoms:

• Buzzword bloat.

• Chronic re-strategizing.

• A graveyard of half-implemented initiatives.
  Antidote: Quit cold turkey. Wisdom isn’t new — it’s distilled.

8. The Quitter (“Strategy Is for the Birds”)

You’ve been burned too many times. You’ve given up on strategy altogether.
Symptoms:

• Cynicism masquerading as pragmatism.

• “We just focus on execution now.”

• Good people leave because they can’t see the point.
  Antidote: Don’t throw out meaning with the mess. Strategy done wisely still matters.

9. The Overstimulated (“Everybody Has an Idea”)

Your organization is drowning in input — investors, advisors, podcasts, books. You’re trying to please them all.
Symptoms:

• Whiplash from constant direction changes.

• A backlog of half-finished initiatives.

• Leaders spread thin, culture spread thinner.

  Antidote: Choose fewer voices. Attention is oxygen — stop suffocating your strategy.

Field Truth

Every sickness began as strength: conviction, curiosity, ambition, adaptability.
The goal isn’t to cure what makes you strong — it’s to detox what’s making you stupid.