On the Roof: The Discipline of Doing What You Don’t Want to Do

There is a tile on our roof that keeps shifting.

It is an old house. And like any old system, a home, an organisation, a team, things show up. Sometimes they creep. Sometimes they crack. This morning, I found myself back up there, trying to reposition that same bloody tile and control a slow leak that should have been resolved already. But it is not. Because even when we do our best, some things just do not stay fixed.

And while up there, balancing on the ridge, this thought hit me: This is leadership.

Not the tile. The roof. The discipline of it. The realisation that no matter how well you plan, how clean your architecture, how strong your roadmap, something will shift. Someone has to notice. And someone has to go up there.

Often, that someone is you.

You Do Not Get to Pick the Work

We talk a lot about leadership as leverage. As strategic clarity. As spending your time on high-value activities. And that is all true. But what is also true, and far less glamorous, is that the more people you support, the more ready you must be to do things you do not want to do.

You will end up:

• Standing between two engineers who have fallen into personal conflict.
• Reading a contract, again, because Legal needs input and no one else has context.
• Meditating across teams that do not talk to each other and do not want to.
• Taking late calls to protect a delivery, or early ones to defend a decision.
• Dealing with politics while trying not to lose your soul.
• Dodging subtle attempts to undermine your team.
• Holding your posture when your values are tested, again, in quiet and insidious ways.

This is not the work we celebrate. But it is the work that keeps the system from leaking.

Discipline Is a Mindset, Not a Mood

It is tempting to resent this work. To believe that leadership means graduating from it. But strategy is not an escape from the mundane. It is the reward for carrying it well.

Sometimes, one of the hardest lessons is this: you do not get to escape these tasks. No amount of seniority, clarity, or process will insulate you entirely. You may reduce the frequency. You may choose your moments. But the discomfort never truly disappears. And accepting that, without resentment, is part of the discipline.

You also have to learn to process that tactical work. To optimise its execution. To handle it cleanly and quickly like reducing toil in operations, so you can reclaim space for more inspiring work. But be mindful: other unpleasant things will keep showing up. As Elon Musk puts it, “the laptop classes tend to think we are in La La Land.” These tasks remind us: reality always prevails.

The mindset here is simple: do the work that shows up.

That is not martyrdom. It is maintenance. The quiet, sustained discipline of keeping things whole. The leaks you patch today are the breakdowns you prevent tomorrow.

Yes, there is a time to delegate. To automate. To scale. But there is also a time to do what no one wants to. Not because it is your job. But because it is your house.

Build a Great Team. Still Expect the Roof.

Leadership does not mean doing it alone. The stronger your team, the less you are in firefighting mode. You earn time for higher-leverage work. You create space for strategy. But you are never exempt.

If anything, strong teams give you the freedom to pick your battles. And when you pick, pick the right ones. Take on the invisible, unglamorous, structurally important work. Show your team what ownership really means.

Sometimes, the best way to lead is to show up where no one else wants to.

The Roof Always Needs Repair

Systems age. People shift. Tiles move. There is no end state where the roof takes care of itself.

So be ready. Not just to design, decide, delegate, but to climb. To patch. To repair. And to return.

Because the higher you go, the more it becomes your job to notice what others do not see.

The binding of the tile will hold for now.
But I know I will have to go up there again ...