The Broken Bow

When I sat down to play my cello yesterday morning, I picked up my bow to tighten it — and couldn’t. The thread had worn on the screw. No bow, no practice. It meant this precious time I set aside for my music was scuppered. All I could do was pluck the strings. I couldn’t practice the beautiful music I’ll be playing in ensemble when I join the holiday music course at the end of the month.

It struck me how this small personal setback mirrors a pattern I see with many women leaders I work with. We don’t plan for disruptions because we simply don’t think they’ll happen to us.

This bow incident isn’t catastrophic. I’ll borrow one from my teacher and get mine repaired. But it made me reflect on how often we take critical components of our work and lives for granted until they’re suddenly unavailable.

When it comes to your leadership, what’s the equivalent of your bow? The one thing you can’t function without. It may be a key member of your team or a system you rely on without even realising how important it is to you. What I find most often with the women I work with, is they take their health and wellbeing for granted. They push too hard for far too long until their bodies simply say “enough” and force them to stop. And there they are — like me with my broken bow — unable to perform.

What I find fascinating is how we approach contingency planning. We tend to either overthink it (planning for every remote possibility) or, more typically, under think it (assuming nothing will ever go wrong). Finding the right balance is the real art.

For my women leaders facing constant pressure and limited time, I suggest a simple framework: identify the 2 or 3 most critical resources you rely on daily. Then create just one solid backup plan for each. Keep it simple.

Your health and wellbeing are non-negotiable. Make sure you have boundaries in place to replenish and protect your energy, whatever the challenges you face. When planning to protect the other key resources or functions you’ve identified, it may be you need to ensure key subject knowledge is shared amongst two or three team members. Or that you can resort to analogue processes should a key tech system fail.

The most successful leaders I work with realise that disruptions are inevitable. They’re part of the game. And they’re prepared to handle them simply, without letting contingency planning take too much of their precious time and effort.

My broken bow reminded me that contingencies aren’t just about preventing catastrophe; they’re about maintaining momentum. Without a backup plan, progress halts completely while you scramble for solutions. With one, you might slow down, but you keep moving forward.

As I arrange to borrow a bow from my teacher, I’m already planning to purchase a basic backup bow — not expensive, just functional for those moments when my primary one needs maintenance. A small investment for peace of mind and uninterrupted practice.

What’s your equivalent of a “backup bow” in your leadership? What one contingency plan could you put in place this week that would protect what matters most? The time to consider this isn’t during the crisis — it’s now, in the calm before any storm.

Because leadership, like music, is about maintaining your ability to create something beautiful, even when circumstances try to silence you