Kedge Goals Help Leaders Get Ungrounded

When a sailboat runs aground, experienced sailors often deploy a "kedge anchor.” A smaller anchor, they row it into deeper water, drop it, and use their winches to pull themselves free.

The kedge creates tension between where they are and where they need to be, while also providing leverage and movement.

Leaders can become grounded too. They master their current role. They perfect their existing skills. And then they stop growing.

There’s a solution in the parallel.

If a kedge anchor can free a grounded boat, a well-chosen goal can free a grounded leader.

Like the anchor, it should be planted firmly in deeper water - just beyond your current capabilities. Far enough to create productive tension between your present state and your aspirations.

Kedge goals must be difficult by design. One leader commits to running a marathon, though she's never run more than three miles. Another studies for a private pilot's license, mastering new disciplines of attention and precision. A third prepares for the master sommelier exam, training his palate to discern subtle differences that most miss entirely.

These goals may seem unrelated to leadership. They're not. They drag us into new waters of experience, ability, and understanding.

The marathon runner learns about resilience and has more strength for long days of travel. The pilot gains judgment and the ability to master complex tasks and risks. The sommelier develops discernment and structures for memorization.Each grows in ways that transfer directly to leadership.

The right kedge goal lives in the space between ambitious and impossible. Choose something that makes you slightly uncomfortable when you say it out loud.

It should feel like a reach, but not a fantasy. It should require sustained effort over months, not weeks. It should demand new disciplines, not just more effort.

And it must matter enough to you that you'll feel genuine disappointment if you fail.

Now, at year's end, is the time to set your kedge goal for the coming year. Choose something just out of reach. Let it pull you into deeper waters. Growth follows.