The long pole in our tent

It’s the long pole in our tent. 

Source: a bonkers CEO I used to work with

I’m just clearing away a lot of old notes. Not paper, but digital ones. I came across this odd expression from a CEO that I used to work with. It goes some way to explain why so many people were left scratching their heads (or laughing) when he left the room.

To try and be clear about the meaning of the phrase, I looked it up:

Definition: 1) The part of a task that will take the longest amount of time to complete; 2) the most critical part of a task.

https://writingexplained.org/idiom-dictionary/long-pole-in-the-tent

Even that was ambiguous.

Kevin Harrington Partner

Kevin Harrington is a Partner at Exit Factor UK, helping SME owners increase business value & build a rewarding, well-planned exit. Former CMO at BBC Worldwide.

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