Mastering the art of staying in my own lane.

Today, I spent way too long trying to sync my operating systems, calendars, and emails.  I followed the instructions, and I tried several different approaches. I ended up more confused than when I started, and somewhere around attempt number four, I stopped, laughed at myself, and picked up the phone to call a more ‘tech’ savvy expert, knowing it would take them about twenty minutes to sort out what had been frustrating me for the better part of a morning. 

And as I hung up the phone, I thought: I have been telling organizations this exact thing for years. Apparently, I needed to hear it too.

When I left my role as a National Project Manager to build CSTEAD Advisory, I thought I had a pretty clear picture of what I was stepping into. I had the experience. I had the methodology. I had worked inside enough organizations to know what good capacity building actually looks like on the ground.

What I underestimated was the business infrastructure piece. Setting up QuickBooks. Getting Calendly working properly so clients can book without a back-and-forth email chain. Building out HubSpot for me and both myself and my clients, so we can actually track relationships and follow-ups. Getting my tech environment set up in a way that supports how a consulting practice needs to run, not how a salaried position inside an organization, with a full team of experts, runs.

These are not small things. And they are genuinely the things that frustrate me the most. I can navigate a complex multi-stakeholder process with competing priorities and still get everyone moving in the same direction. But software configuration? That is a completely different expertise, and pretending otherwise was costing me time I simply do not have.

So I’ve made a decision that feels a little uncomfortable at first. I have to invest in professional help to get those systems set up properly. And almost immediately, something clicked that I had been saying to clients for years without fully applying to myself.

Money spent now on the right support is an investment in the future. Every hour I stop losing to frustration and troubleshooting is an hour I get back for the work I actually built this practice to do. Time is not just money in a business sense. It is the thing you cannot get back once it is gone.

I have spent a lot of years sitting inside organizations that were stuck. Not because the people were not capable. Not because the vision was wrong. But because the gap between what they were trying to do and the capacity they had to do it was wider than anyone wanted to admit, and everyone was working too hard trying to bridge that gap on their own.

I watched municipalities invest real budget into strategic planning processes, produce documents that genuinely captured good thinking, and then quietly return to the same patterns three years later, roughly where they started. I watched Chambers of Commerce pursue significant economic development opportunities without stopping to honestly assess whether their internal systems and capacity were ready to support them. I watched Economic Development Officers walk into roles where the foundational work had not been done, and spend their first year rebuilding the runway instead of flying.

In almost every case, the turning point was the same. Someone finally asked for help from the right place. No more planning. Not another workshop. Specific, targeted expertise that addressed the actual gap, whether that was governance, systems, capacity, or just an honest outside eye on where things actually stood versus where everyone hoped they were.

There is no shame in knowing where your expertise ends. In fact, I would argue it is one of the clearest signs of genuine leadership. The most effective people I have worked alongside over the years were not the ones who tried to do everything. They were the ones who knew exactly where their energy was best spent, and who to call for the rest.

The organizations that move forward are not necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the most ambitious plans. They are the ones who are honest about where they are, clear about what they need, and willing to invest in closing the gap rather than just talking about it.

Right now, there is real momentum building in economic development across the province. Significant federal and provincial investment is coming. Municipalities are expanding their capacity. Chambers are positioning for growth. That is genuinely exciting. But opportunity has a way of exposing the gaps you have been working around for years.

The question worth sitting with is a simple one. When did you last take an honest look at where your organization actually is, compared to where your plan said you would be by now? And what would it take, really take, to close that gap?

You do not have to figure that out alone. In fact, you probably should not.

I work alongside municipalities, nonprofits, and small organizations to build the capacity to turn good plans into real results. And have the wisdom to stay in my lane and build customized teams when necessary.