What Got You Here Might Still Be Valuable: The Maturity of Re-evaluating People, Not Just Roles

In the business world, few aphorisms are quoted more frequently—and with more uncritical acceptance—than Marshall Goldsmith’s famous warning: “What got you here won’t get you there.”

Its message is clear, and in many ways, useful. The systems, habits, and competencies that carried you to your current level of success may be insufficient for navigating the complexity of the next. Adaptation is critical. Change is inevitable. What once served you may now constrain you.

But somewhere along the way, this phrase has taken on a darker, more transactional tone—especially when applied to people.

What got you here won’t get you there… so shed the dead weight.

Cut the friend. Fire the colleague. Exit the employee. Move on.

At the extreme, it has become an anthem for emotional detachment masquerading as strategic clarity. We now celebrate the founder who “left the old team behind,” or the executive who “replaced the early believers with professionals.” The subtext? That emotional maturity means pruning relationships for performance, and that loyalty has a shelf life.

But real emotional maturity is far more nuanced than that.

Because the truth is, value—especially in human relationships—is not always measurable, immediate, or role-bound. Sometimes, what got you here might not get you there in its original form—but that doesn’t mean it has no place at all.

🧠 Role Fit vs. People Fit: A Maturity in Leadership

Let’s consider a practical example.

Your business has outgrown the skill set of your current Marketing Director. When you started, they were invaluable—scrappy, creative, endlessly passionate. But today, your company needs someone who understands enterprise channels, complex segmentation, and data science.

Yes, it may be time to replace them in that role.

But does that mean it’s time to remove them entirely?

Perhaps not.

What if this person—while no longer your best option for scaling digital marketing—is still the cultural backbone of your team? What if they are a walking embodiment of your core values? What if they’ve been your emotional ballast through every late-night pivot and boardroom disaster?

Is that not a form of value?

Yes, you may need a new CMO. But you might also need a Chief of Staff, a Head of Culture, a founding team advisor, or a new internal role where this person’s loyalty and belief in the mission can continue to serve as fuel for the organization.

🌱 Value Isn’t Always Immediate or Measurable

One of the marks of leadership maturity is the ability to distinguish between a person’s utility and their essence.

Utility can change with circumstances. Essence often does not.

Too many business leaders prematurely sever relationships based on present function alone. They fail to ask the deeper question: “What does this person truly contribute to our ecosystem that isn’t easily reflected in KPIs?”

That contribution might be emotional intelligence. Cultural continuity. Institutional memory. Internal trust. Or, just as critically, belief—an enduring belief in the founder, in the mission, in the team’s potential.

And in a world where loyalty is rare, turnover is high, and culture is fragile, is that not worth preserving?

⚖️ Leadership is Judgment, Not Just Execution

This is not a call for nepotism or stagnation. Businesses must evolve. People must be held accountable. No one should be guaranteed a seat just because they’ve been around long enough.

But equally, no one should be discarded simply because their value doesn’t fit neatly into the spreadsheet. Leadership is not just about execution; it’s about judgment. Knowing when to part ways is important. But so is knowing when to reposition, reimagine, and reinvest.

🎯 Final Thought: Loyalty Is a Competitive Advantage—If You Know How to Use It

In an era obsessed with speed and scale, it’s tempting to see people purely through the lens of what they can do for you right now. But relationships are not SaaS tools. You don’t cancel them when the feature set no longer meets the spec.

Great leaders look deeper. They understand that some of their most meaningful advantages—the intangibles that make companies endure—come from people whose value isn’t obvious, but whose impact is immeasurable.

So next time you hear, “What got you here won’t get you there,” don’t just assume it’s time to clear the deck.

Pause. Reflect. Ask not just what people do—but who they are, and what they might still become with the right support.

Because sometimes, what got you here still has more to give.