walk / tread a tightrope

/wˈɔːk tɹˈɛd ɐ tˈaɪtɹəʊp/

/wˈɔːk tɹˈɛd ɐ tˈaɪtɹoʊp/

to walk / tread a tightrope

to be in a situation where a person has to be careful about every decision they make because even one mistake can pose a great risk

Examples

1. Turkey treads a tightrope in its approach to Russia.

2. The Fed, is the bank of banks and its job is essentially to walk a tightrope between encouraging the economy to grow, aka, allowing prices to rise, but at the same time, keeping inflation from gaining too much ground and taking away the purchasing power of its citizens.

3. Like many entrepreneurs in China, Ma had been walking a tightrope, balancing sometimes conflicting demands from Beijing and foreign investors who are eager to see growth.

4. Emily is the author a new book, 'Rapport: the four ways to read people' and, as she told BBC Radio 4 programme All In The Mind it isn't easy to get along with everyone: I often describe rapport-building in a relationship as like walking a tightrope because you really do need to maintain that balance of being objective, treating people with compassion but that doesn't mean I'm sympathetic, I'm collusive - it's that balance between judgement and avoidance.