There’s a beaver dam near my house in Colorado….or there was. The city came in last week and tore it out. And my neighborhood app absolutely exploded.
People were furious. Save the beavers! How could they do this? What kind of animals destroy nature like this?
I get it. Beavers are genuinely cute. I studied biology and animal behavior. I have a soft spot for ecosystems and the beauty of creation.
But here’s what most people don’t understand. That creek runs for miles through the city. It’s a critical flood mitigation corridor. A beaver dam in the wrong place doesn’t just affect the beavers. It can affect thousands of homes downstream.
The city wasn’t being heartless. They were looking at a bigger map and the greater good.
That’s leadership sometimes.
You sometimes have to make a call based on information others don’t have access to.
Unfortunately, most of us have a tendency to see what’s immediately in front of us and not always the bigger map.
Not every decision can be easily explained in a comment section. As leaders, we should be sensitive, seek to understand and hold the bigger picture.
