Step Into the Danger Zone

We had a project. It wasn’t going well.

The contract was signed. The team was assigned. The client was onboarded. But something was off, right from the start. You could feel it in every meeting. The client was hesitant. Our tech leads were cautious. Our project manager was tiptoeing. But no one said the thing we were all thinking: something’s wrong here.

And not wrong like a missed deadline or a miscommunication. Wrong like the whole foundation wasn’t quite right.

But nobody wanted to talk about it.

Sales didn’t want to. Client services didn’t want to. The delivery team didn’t want to. The client definitely didn’t want to. Everyone was avoiding the conversation because to bring it up meant we might be admitting the project was misaligned, misscoped, maybe even set up to fail. And who wants to be the one to say that?

So instead, we danced around it. For weeks.

And that’s when I realized: if we didn’t deal with this now, it would only get worse. We’d miss deadlines. Burn the team out. Upset the client. Lose revenue. Or end up refunding the work altogether. So I did what I now see as one of the hardest but most essential things a leader can do.

I stepped into the danger zone.

I brought it up, on a live status call, with the client, with our team on the line. Calmly. Respectfully. But clearly. I said what everyone else was thinking: something wasn’t adding up, and we needed to talk about it.

It was uncomfortable. Nobody likes to be the first to break the silence. But you know what? It changed everything.

Because what I’ve learned over and over again, is that pretending a problem doesn’t exist doesn’t make it go away. Hoping someone else brings it up isn’t a strategy. And “no news is good news” is a terrible operating principle.

You can’t fix what you don’t face.

And that’s what real leadership looks like, not pretending everything’s fine, but being the one willing to say when it’s not. Being the one who steps into the uncomfortable moment, names the tension, and gets people back on the same page.

Not to shame. Not to blame. But to realign.

Since that project, this idea of “stepping into the danger zone” has become part of how we work. It’s how we help teams address broken client dynamics, underperforming processes, confused roles, or simmering resentment. If something feels off, we don’t bury it.

We bring it to the table with clarity, humility, and the belief that we can get through it.

And the outcome? Better projects. Better relationships. Better business.

Because the only thing worse than a tough conversation… is the damage caused by never having it.

Richard