Misdiagnosed: Stop Managing What You Need to Solve

Leadership problems don’t disappear when you rename them. But many leaders do exactly that—calling a problem a “tension” so they don’t have to deal with it. This episode exposes that pattern and offers a better path: accuracy, courage, and the willingness to turn the light on.

In this episode of The Next Sunday Podcast, hosts Jim Sheppard and Frank Bealer unpack Frank’s Substack post Misdiagnosed and the leadership drift it names: misdiagnosis becomes a sanctuary for the tired leader, the insecure leader, and the leader running low on emotional margin.

The conversation starts with a well-known leadership idea: some things are a problem to solve, and some things are a tension to manage. Frank explains how that true principle often gets misused. When a leader is conflict-avoidant, exhausted, or protecting themselves emotionally, they may start declaring problems to be “tensions,” because tensions feel safer. They can be tolerated. They don’t require action.

Jim and Frank explore what fuels that pattern:

• Fatigue and relentless pace
• Conflict avoidance that intensifies when leaders are tired
• “Avoidance in wisdom’s clothing”
• Growth as a mask that makes misdiagnosis easier to ignore

Frank argues that a healthy leadership habit is learning to keep “new eyes” even when you are no longer new, and to ask, “If someone took my job tomorrow, where would they look that I should have been looking?”

They also get practical around one of the most common places misdiagnosis shows up: team dysfunction and staff issues. Jim makes the case that keeping the wrong fit around is not kindness. It is costly to the whole team and ultimately costly to the person who isn’t thriving. He even recommends generous severance, because the delay almost always costs more than the decision.

This episode is a must-listen for pastors, nonprofit leaders, executive teams, and church boards who want to lead with clarity instead of convenience.