The Alligator Story
Summary: The verbatim LinkedIn post behind the wiki concept of the same name — reproduced word for word as it was published.
Sources: LinkedIn Posts.md (“The Alligator Story,” posted 2026-03-12), verbatim
Last updated: 2026-07-11
Originally posted March 12, 2026.
There’s a moment in every leader’s journey when you realize the real test isn’t how many problems you can solve. It’s whether you are willing to confront the problems that keep coming back, even when you know that choice is going to hurt a little.
In July 1984, I was standing on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Academy, freshly shorn, sea bag full, and only minutes after taking the oath that made me a midshipman in the United States Navy. After the formality came the emotion: hugs, tears, and the quiet knowledge that life was about to change in ways none of us could predict.
Just before I turned to join my new company and begin Plebe Summer, my dad, an alum and Navy Captain, pulled me aside and offered a simple, unforgettable parable about leadership.
“Imagine you’re in a deep pit you can’t climb out of,” he said. “You’re surrounded by alligators. You have a pistol. Every day you’re given one bullet. You must decide—do you shoot the closest alligator, or the pregnant one?”
A manager, he told me, shoots the nearest alligator and lives another day, relatively unscathed. A leader finds a way to survive the immediate threat and use that single shot on the source of future problems. You recognize leaders by that choice—and by their scars. “Go start to earn yours.”
Placeholder — swap in a real image when one's chosen.
I didn’t realize at the time how often that image would come back to me. It has become one of those internal “memory aids” I lean on when the pressure is high and the easy choice is to just make the noise go away.
It’s not a pretty image, but I have found it to be an accurate one. Over the course of my Navy and corporate career, I’ve had more than a few “Alligator Moments”—times when the safest move was to quiet the loudest issue, avoid conflict, and keep the surface calm.
But the leaders I have most admired, the ones I have trusted enough to follow through uncertainty, and the leader I worked hard to be do something different. They absorb the discomfort of the present in order to deal with what is generating the problems in the first place.
In practice, that choice rarely feels heroic. It usually feels lonely.
Saying “We’re going to fix the system, not just the symptom” often means:
- You will be misunderstood in the short term.
- You will disappoint people who benefit from the status quo.
- You will carry the political and emotional scars long after the meeting ends.
The paradox is that this willingness to suffer a bit now is what creates resilience later—for your team, your culture, and your results. Over time, people learn that you are not just going to make the pain go away for a week; you are going to go after what keeps causing it.
The next time you are facing a hard call, try this:
Am I using today’s bullet on the loudest problem—or on the problem that keeps creating problems?
Leaders take a breath, steady their hands, and aim at the source—even when it means walking away with a few more scars.