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If you walk into many Dutch tech companies at the end of May, you will hear a familiar sentence:
“We still have time before the second half of the year.”
And that assumption quietly creates one of the biggest execution problems of the year.
- January begins with urgency.
- February builds momentum.
- March and April focus on delivery.
Then May arrives.
Teams are still working hard, but something starts changing underneath.
- Priorities become less precise.
- Focus becomes softer.
- Leaders become more reactive.
This is when organisations begin drifting.
Let us break down why mid year drift happens, what it does to execution, and how leaders prevent it before it damages the second half of the year.
The Mid Year Transition Problem
By late May, teams have been operating at pace for months.
- Roadmaps evolve.
- Stakeholder requests increase.
- New ideas enter planning discussions.
None of these are dangerous individually.
Together they create subtle misalignment.
The result becomes visible:
- Priorities become less clear.
- Teams start switching context more often.
- Delivery begins slowing without obvious causes.
Why Leaders Miss It
Leaders usually focus on whether teams are busy.
The problem is that activity is not the same as progress.
When organisations drift:
- Teams remain occupied
- Meetings remain full
- Roadmaps remain active
But meaningful progress slows.
How Strong Leaders Correct Mid-Year Drift
They focus on clarity before urgency.
They:
- Review active priorities against original goals
- Remove initiatives that no longer matter
- Reconfirm ownership across teams
- Reduce parallel workstreams
- Realign leadership around outcomes
One last thing worth keeping in mind
Mid-year problems rarely appear suddenly.
They appear quietly and compound over time.
Leaders who correct drift early protect execution before the second half of the year begins.
