A contractor lead walked into our org with strong language, strong opinions, and all the right lead-shaped signals ... then a basic desktop and mobile navigation effort took about 6 months. That gap is why I say if your system rewards how someone sounds in the room more than what their team can consistently ship, you are buying charisma at a leadership price tag. I am not talking about someone we were considering promoting. I am talking about someone who came in already positioned as a lead from prior roles, and in our system he should never have been in that seat. He was vocal, opinionated, and communicative. On the surface, he looked lead-like. Under real delivery pressure, the signal changed. He could not reliably deliver, he could not delegate and deliver through others, and he took everything on himself until he became the bottleneck. Strong talk. Weak follow-through. One basic desktop and mobile navigation effort took roughly 6 months.…