If you’ve ever seen the movie, Pollyanna, you know she is a young girl who chooses to focus on the positive. She shows people how to redirect their energy to finding an alternative solution to a problematic situation. 
 
Optimism doesn’t mean ignore the chaos. I have had my own share of problematic situations. To name a few… 
 
I worked for two managers early in my career who did not support my career aspirations. I knew I had to leave. I even walked to/from work repeating the mantra, “I gotta get out of this place if it’s the last thing I ever do”. I definitely stayed too long in a broken system. (If you’ve never heard the song, take a listen: The Animals – 1965)

I studied for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam, hoping it would give me an edge, but I failed miserably. To this day, that test terrifies me. I treated the exam like a solo challenge, when what I needed was structure, support, and a better strategy.

I took a technical role, hoping to bridge the gap between business and IT. I knew I could help the team deliver better outcomes. But I underestimated how hard it is to gain traction when no one asks for change. Momentum matters more than ideas.
Once, I stretched into a leadership role that sounded like a step up. I ignored the red flags: lack of support and trust by the team. I thought I could make it work through sheer will. I couldn’t. That failure taught me: leadership without alignment is a trap.
 
The moral of these stories: recognize when effort is no longer moving the mission forward. They’re about shutting down the wrong work to make space for the right work. 
 
And that brings me to you. 
 
Is your team stuck in the middle of something that no longer makes sense? 
 
*  Maybe it’s a tech rollout without business support, or vice versa.
*  Maybe it’s a project with no owner, no budget, and no chance.
*  Maybe it’s a process your team resents but no one wants to admit is broken.
 
Here’s what I’ve learned through my own chaos and through working with dozens of business leaders like you: 
 
➡️ The longer you hold on to a dead-end project, the more you lose. 
➡️ The sooner you face the chaos, the sooner you can get your team back on track. 
 
Sometimes the most strategic move you can make… is to stop. 
 
If you could use some Pollyanna perspective, let’s talk about what’s stuck, what’s working, and what it would look like to build momentum again.
 
Keep turning that chaos into progress, 
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