The empty saddle
You don’t notice someone’s value when they’re here. You notice it the day they’re not.
Suddenly the small things stop happening. The tasks no one talked about — don’t get done. The problems they quietly prevented — show up loud.
An empty saddle tells the truth — who was carrying the weight, and who was just along for the ride.
And when the gap appears, everyone’s exposed. Some freeze. Some wait. A few step in without being asked.
That’s real leadership. Not titles. Not meetings. Just the instinct to carry what needs carrying.
Empty saddles don’t break a place. They reveal it.