They say necessity is the mother of invention. But when digital leaders are forced into “do more with less” mode, necessity can also feel like a trap. Expectations rise while budgets shrink, regulation multiplies, and talent remains scarce. You are asked to accelerate digital transformation, roll out AI, improve customer experience and tighten cybersecurity, often with barely the resources you need.

This is not just a matter of efficiency; it is a set of impossible trade-offs. Every euro invested in governance is one not spent on innovation. Every hour devoted to cybersecurity is an hour not available for new customer services. Prioritising means disappointing someone: the board, the business, or your teams. And while you stretch your organisation further, you also risk stretching people beyond their limits. A recent study among Belgian IT leaders revealed that while transformation remains a top priority, the majority admit their budgets and skills no longer keep pace with ambition.

Here lies the paradox: as a digital leader you are expected to be both the accelerator and the brake pedal of your organisation. You must be bold enough to innovate, yet cautious enough to keep regulators and risk officers satisfied. The hidden costs of this paradox are cultural as much as financial: morale erodes, talent leaves, and the organisation risks sliding into incrementalism that never truly transforms.

Perhaps the true leadership act today is not about doing more with less, but about daring to decide what not to do. Killing projects, saying no to demands, and setting realistic expectations may be unpopular in the short term, but they are the only way to safeguard strategic investments and protect human capital. That is why conversations about how to keep our talent in sync with technological change, such as in our upcoming Belgium’s Got Digital Talent event, are so vital. Because ultimately, the ability to thrive under constraints will not depend only on tools or budgets, but on people , and the leaders who have the courage to make the right choices.