Grow Without Dying: A Leader’s Survival Guide in Fragile Times

I. The Illusion of Growth

Growth is supposed to be our highest calling. According to Jordan B. Peterson, it is the central purpose of our existence. But in today's organisations, growth has become a dangerous game, not because growth is wrong, but because the way we pursue it is broken.

Mick Kersten, in his book Project to Product, describes how the average lifespan of IT companies has drastically declined compared to industrial firms of the previous century. Their structural fragility, obsession with short-term gains, and inability to shift from project-based chaos to product-focused systems contribute to their accelerated decay.

Most IT companies do not grow. They scatter. They hide behind the illusion of opportunity, masking the absence of strategy. What they call optionality is often just a refusal to choose. What they frame as empowerment is often just a lack of ownership. And in this confusion, the cost is real: execution becomes fragile, while both engineering and leadership teams burn out.

We have seen this play out time and again. Once-revered giants like Nokia, Blackberry, and Yahoo collapsed under the weight of poor strategic choices and internal confusion. They mistook movement for momentum and iteration for innovation. Each had opportunities to refocus, yet let ego or inertia override clarity.

More recently, we are witnessing the same pattern among companies that mishandled the rise of AI, overpromising, underdelivering, and burning through capital in hysteria-driven growth cycles. Their excitement outpaced their understanding, and the gap between narrative and execution swallowed them whole. The pattern is not rare. It becomes the norm. And the consequences are often terminal.

In a world where systems thinking has been replaced by roadmaps filled with well-dressed fiction, glossy timelines and fake certainty, leaders are expected to carry the weight, without the clarity. The result? Fragility meets abuse. Strategy is avoided. Execution becomes chaotic. Accountability disappears.

II. Values as Anchors

So how do you grow without dying?

You stick to your values:

Think of companies that survived long winters: Apple under Jobs' return, IBM’s transition from hardware to services, or even Microsoft under Satya Nadella’s cultural shift. They all had one thing in common: they anchored themselves in a set of enduring principles before attempting transformation.

• Discipline
• Commitment
• Involvement
• Support

These are not just nice words. They are survival tools. In chaotic environments, they anchor you ... until they do not.

Because at some point, self-preservation must take over. You must be aware enough to recognise when your own growth is in jeopardy. Trained leaders often believe they can change the system from within. They try to reach an unwilling mass. But change needs critical mass, and when the mass resists, your energy gets consumed by inertia. Too much resistance is not worth it if the will to change cannot counterbalance it. Neither is your health or your time. You only have one life, and spending it in a place that depletes you is not noble. It is wasteful. This is not rhetorical , just a fact of life.

III. When the System Pushes Back

In those moments, remember this:
Even in a herd of buffalo charging towards a crocodile-filled river, the elders do not volunteer to die. They are pushed by the herd, and for the herd. When the time comes, companies do not sacrifice for you. They do not show feelings. They let you go.

I have laid off great people after battles lost by those who came before me, predecessors who sold myths to get hired. I have seen the cycle. It repeats. And you want to avoid becoming one of those predecessors. Well-intentioned perhaps, but ultimately part of the decay. Because once the story collapses, the system looks for someone to blame.

IV. Survive and Grow Anyway

So what do you do?

First, recognise the signs. Things start going awry when your competence becomes a mirror reflecting the ineffectiveness of others. Suddenly, you are no longer seen as a contributor, but as a threat. Attitudes shift. The tone in meetings changes. Communication becomes manipulative, often laced with veiled accusations.

Decisions stop being grounded in data and start leaning on feelings. People begin hiding behind abstract values like “we are a family,” “this is about the company’s survival,” “you are not a team player.” These are not reflections of alignment. They are tools of deflection. Your results stand. Theirs do not. But politics always wins ... at least temporarily.

You grow anyway.
You protect your values.
You solve problems visibly and precisely.
You mentor those below you, even when you disagree with the direction above.
You prepare the next generation to shine, even if they eventually leave you for something better. They actually should. That is still a win.

And when it is time to go, then, you go. Unless you are the captain, you should not sink with the ship. You owe it to yourself to keep steering, ideally, bigger, better ships that value what you bring to the helm.

A proven track record is enough to assess your situation. Then you do not need to build myths. You bring your results with you. Compare your contribution to the ecosystem's decay. If the latter grows faster, find your way out.

V. The Game and Its Rules

But do not be bitter. The game is what it is. Most modern recruiters will never assess you based on your actual competence. Many lack the competence themselves.

But you chose to play this game.

So play it well.
Survive.
Grow.
Pay the bills.
Train others.
And when the time comes, just leave stronger than you arrived.