Why “Hurdles” Change Leadership Conversations

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a hurdle as “a light portable barrier over which runners jump in a race”, and more broadly as

“a difficulty or obstacle which must be overcome.”

We use metaphor all the time in leadership conversations, usually without stopping to notice it. People talk about being stuck, carrying too much, firefighting, spinning plates, or trying to get back on track. These aren’t throwaway phrases; they’re the language people reach for when they’re trying to make sense of what they are experiencing.

Metaphor gives shape to experience. It turns something complex into something we can picture, and once we can picture it, we can usually talk about it more clearly. This idea is well established in cognitive linguistics. George Lakoff’s research highlights how metaphor is not simply a feature of language, but a way of structuring how we understand experience. The words people choose reflect how they are making sense of what is happening.

It's why certain metaphors appear again and again, because they help people describe what progress feels like when it isn’t straightforward.

“Hurdles” is one of the metaphors used in everyday conversations... It's also in literature, TV, podcasts, social media.

This metaphor tends to surface when progress hasn’t stopped, but isn’t smooth either. A hurdle suggests something in the way, but not unexpected or permanent. It also sits within movement, rather than outside it.

What matters about hurdles is that they are fundamentally about progress. They’re part of the course - some are there from the start, and others might be unexpected. You don’t create them by failing and you don’t remove them by wishing them away. A hurdle marks a point where something needs to be negotiated and considered.

Crucially, a hurdle carries an assumption of eventual movement. You might not get over it straight away; you may need to slow down, prepare differently, or return to it more than once, but the expectation remains that you do get over it in the end. Progress might pause, but it isn’t abandoned.

I see this most clearly in one-to-one conversations. I’m thinking of a leader who described a piece of work that had slowed almost to a halt. They talked about feeling blocked and increasingly self-critical about the lack of movement. Then, almost in passing, they referred to the situation as “another hurdle I just can’t get over yet”.

When we stayed with it, the conversation changed focus. Rather from the piece of work being something they could never achieve, it became a possibility - just another step in the process to negotiate before moving forward. They stopped talking as though they were stuck, and started talking as someone still moving.

Over time, noticing moments like this is what led me to develop Your Hurdles & Beyond™. The framework doesn’t introduce a new way of talking so much as give structure to a metaphor people already recognise. It provides a practical way for leaders to work with the language already present in the conversation, helping individuals locate where they are, explore what sits in front of them, and consider how they want to move forward.

It takes seriously the idea that progress isn’t always smooth, and that pauses and adjustments are part of moving forward, not evidence that something has gone wrong.

In the end, this isn’t about choosing the right metaphor, but about paying attention to the ones already shaping the conversation. The language people use offers quiet clues about how they see their progress, what feels possible, and how they relate to what’s in front of them.

For me, hurdles keep progress in view. They acknowledge difficulty without letting it define the whole story, and they leave space for patience, learning, and eventual movement, even when it isn’t yet clear what that movement will look like.