The Nero Effect: When Leaders Perform While the Business Burns

(10 minute read)

I’ve seen it too many times to count.

As an in-house exec, I’ve watched companies go through the same loop over and over again. Each time, a group of hopeful, high-performing people is bent on driving growth or getting out of a tough season. As a consultant, I’ve gotten the call to clean up the mess after a big-name consulting firm came in, dazzled everyone with fancy decks and expensive analysis, and left the real problems untouched—almost as often.

Why, even after all the hard work, is it that no progress is usually made? People are working hard, sometimes giving herculean effort to turn things around. But things are stalled. Despite all the busyness and activity, the endless meetings, the drama and angst, progress and forward momentum remain elusive and out of touch.

This pattern is so predictable, I had to give it a name: The Nero Effect.

What is The Nero Effect?

The Nero Effect is when leaders and organizations spend their energy putting on a big performance—slides, meetings, expensive consultants—while the real problems burn in the background. It stems from fear and uncertainty and is, at its core, all about looking like you’ve got it together rather than actually dialing in and facing the tough work of fixing what’s broken. Companies spend countless fortunes trying to impress the Board or make themselves feel like they’re “doing everything they can,” but underneath the surface, nothing meaningful changes.

Instead of focusing on real, actionable change, these organizations get stuck in an almost endless cycle of analysis paralysis—frameworks, interviews, and PowerPoint decks that might look impressive but do nothing to solve the root problems. It’s style over substance. A lot of smoke, but no fire.

It’s just progress theater. And it costs companies millions—and employees their livelihoods.

A Real-World Example

I once worked on a project where costs were spiraling out of control and performance was tanking. From the outside, it looked like a leadership problem. But when we rolled up our sleeves and dug in, we found some pretty shocking things: two teams were doing almost the same work—completely overlapping responsibilities—but no one realized it because they were buried in reports. Speaking of reports, one team was producing more than two hundred a month, and no one could tell us which ones were actually used or whether they were even relevant. The result? A mountain of costs with no real impact on the business.

We had the answer. We had the data. We recommended consolidating the team, slashing the number of reports, and simplifying the entire operation to focus on what moved the needle. The roadmap was there—clear, actionable, and ready to implement.

But instead of taking action, leadership decided to hire a big-name consulting firm to “analyze the situation” again—just so they could show the Board that they were “doing everything they could.” Seriously.

Meanwhile, the business kept suffering. Revenue continued to decline. Layoffs started happening. Bonuses evaporated. And the human cost was real—morale plummeted as teams watched leadership throw money at outside experts while the actual problems got worse.

When I asked, “Why are we paying them to tell us what we already know?”—I got blank stares. Crickets.

And guess what came back from the big-name consultants after weeks of interviews and fancy slides? Exactly what we already knew. No big insights. No transformative ideas. Just basic business fundamentals that any decent operator could have pointed out in half the time.

Counting the Cost

The Nero Effect isn’t just frustrating—it’s expensive and damaging. Financially, companies waste hundreds of thousands—sometimes millions—on big-name consulting engagements that deliver nothing new. For example, top-tier firms like McKinsey often charge over $1,000 per hour for senior partners, and a typical 12-week project can run around $1 million—even when the insights are basically what your team already knows. This isn’t to say that engagements at this level hold no value; it’s to highlight that they are very expensive and often don’t result in value creation or strategic impact equivalent to the cost. That’s money that could’ve gone toward investing in talent or leadership development, product innovation, or improving the customer experience—instead of another glossy slide deck.

But the cost doesn’t stop at the balance sheet. The Nero Effect eats away at trust and morale. When leaders consistently defer to outsiders rather than trusting their own people, teams start to wonder if leadership even believes in them. The folks in the trenches—the ones who do the work every day—also begin to question whether leaders truly understand what’s at stake or know how to lead forward. Research shows that poor change management practices (pro tip: “poor change management practices” is a synonym for “poor leadership”) can lead to confusion, resistance, and burnout, making it even harder to execute real change. Plus, 86% of employees believe empathetic leadership improves morale, yet most say that kind of leadership is missing in action.

And then there’s the opportunity cost—the time you lose while the business goes through the motions of analysis instead of action. Delaying decisions that could save even $100 million annually costs your business around $270,000 every single day. Yikes. That’s real money—and real growth—just sitting on the sidelines while everyone waits for the next deck to drop.

How to Spot The Nero Effect

It’s not always easy to see the Nero Effect from the inside, but there are some dead giveaways. One big red flag is when there’s a sudden flurry of decks and frameworks but no real action plan that’s going to move the needle. Everything looks polished and important, but nothing actually changes.

Another telltale sign? When every tough question—like, “How do we fix this?” or “What’s the next move?”—gets deflected with yet another report or another “analysis phase” instead of real decisions. If every time someone raises their hand with an uncomfortable truth, the answer is, “Let’s bring in another consultant,” you’re in deep Nero territory.

And let’s not forget the internal circular meetings—the same urgent conversations happening on repeat every week. People talk a big game about solutions, but then the group leaves with no decisions, no next steps, and no one accountable for making change happen. Everyone’s busy. Everyone’s talking. But the same problems keep burning in the background.

That’s the Nero Effect in full swing: leadership that’s more focused on appearances and frenetic busyness than on actually rolling up their sleeves and making hard calls. It’s the business equivalent of fiddling while Rome burns.

Breaking the Cycle

Here’s the truth: not all consulting is created equal. The right partners don’t just show up with a fancy framework or a 100-slide deck—they roll up their sleeves, work alongside your teams, and help you cut through the noise to actually get things done. They don’t just analyze the problem—they help you act on it.

What’s exciting about this new approach to consulting is that it’s outcome-focused, not presentation-focused. These partners know that real change happens when the people closest to the work are empowered to make it better. They bring a bias toward action—no endless meetings, no decision deferrals, and definitely no slide decks that sit on a shelf. Instead, they help you make decisions that stick, build momentum that lasts, and transform your business from the inside out. This is how we roll at Coherence Strategy Group.

And the results speak for themselves. Companies that work with partners like us see real-world impact: studies show businesses can boost efficiency by up to 30% and grow revenue by 25% with the right consulting support (keevee.com). Organizations that invest in leadership and development through these kinds of partnerships also experience 37% higher employee productivity (businessconsultingagency.com).

That’s the difference between real progress and corporate theater. We’re not here to impress the Board—we’re here to help you build a business that works. Which, fun fact, will ultimately really impress the Board.