Leading with an Open Hand

Following last week's reflection on independence and interdependence, I've been continuing to explore how we as leaders work with our teams and others within the universe of our business and personal world. How can we include everyone, especially when their views are different or even in opposition to our own? Bringing together different views, allowing them to be heard, included, seen, and embraced is core to flourishing leadership and successful enterprises. In this context, I heard an interview with Mark Epstein who said, “Love is the revelation of another person's freedom.” This reminded me of how Francis Hesselbein and Alan Mulally frequently said, "Work is love made visible", and it occurred to me that true leadership is the revelation of our followers' freedom. To be a great leader, we need to give clear direction, align our teams, and then give them the freedom to excel in their work. To paraphrase Epstein, we need to lead with an open hand rather than a closed fist. As I pondered this metaphor, three insights emerged: true leadership creates space for authentic expression, the strongest teams are built on trust rather than control, and freedom within structure produces the most innovative results.

True leadership creates space for authentic expression by recognizing that each member of a team brings unique perspectives, experiences, and talents that cannot be fully realized under micromanagement or rigid control. When we lead with an open hand, we acknowledge that our role isn't to mold people into our image but to create an environment where they can bring the fullness of themselves to their work. This requires courage—the courage to let go of the illusion that we can or should control every outcome. The magic happens when people feel safe bringing their whole selves to work, knowing their unique voice will be heard and valued. This doesn't mean absence of standards or expectations; rather, it means creating clear boundaries within which authentic expression can thrive. Leaders who understand this create organizations that pulse with creativity and flourishing because they tap into the full spectrum of human potential rather than just the narrow band that conformity allows.

The strongest teams are built on trust rather than control, and this trust must flow in both directions—leaders trusting their teams and teams trusting their leaders. When we lead with a closed fist, gripping tightly to power and decision-making, we communicate a fundamental lack of faith in our people's capabilities. This creates a vicious cycle where team members, sensing this lack of trust, become less confident, less innovative, and more dependent on direction from above. Conversely, when we lead with an open hand, we demonstrate our belief in our team's competence and judgment. This creates a virtuous cycle where increased autonomy leads to increased ownership, which leads to better outcomes and deeper engagement. When we trust our teams to navigate challenges, make decisions, and even make mistakes, we build resilience and capability that far exceeds what command-and-control leadership could ever achieve. Trust doesn't mean abdication of responsibility; it means creating structures and support systems that enable people to succeed on their own terms.

Freedom within structure produces the most innovative results by providing both the safety of boundaries and space for creative exploration. This paradox—that constraints enhance creativity—is crucial for modern leaders. Clear vision, values, and objectives combined with flexibility in execution create what psychologists call "optimal challenge." Teams know their destination but chart their own course. Breakthrough solutions emerge when we define the problem clearly but let team members solve it their way. They bring perspectives that leaders, limited by their own assumptions, might never consider. Leaders who master this balance build organizations that are both aligned and adaptive, focused and flexible, respecting people's intelligence and ensuring coherence.

In life and leadership, the choice between the open hand and the closed fist defines not just our effectiveness but the very nature of our relationships with those we lead and love. When we understand that true leadership is the revelation of our followers' freedom, we begin to see our role not as controllers but as enablers, not as directors but as facilitators of others' greatness. For those we lead and love, this approach transforms work from task completion into an expression of their highest potential, and transforms leadership from an exercise of power into an act of service and collective flourishing.

With love, gratitude, and wonder,

Scott

Finding Peace in a Changing World by Robert Waldinger

Robert Waldinger shared a profound reflection on impermanence that emerged from a simple moment with their six-week-old grandchild. While marveling at the baby's healthy growth, they realized this joyful change represents the same fundamental force we often resist when it appears in unwanted forms. The piece explores how we celebrate certain changes—babies growing, spring blooming—while dreading others like aging or winter's approach, when in reality, all change stems from the same universal truth of impermanence.

The author examines how emotions can deceive us into feeling permanent, using the example of "Sunday night blues" that vanish after a good night's sleep. Drawing from Buddhist teachings about The Five Remembrances, my friend suggests that accepting impermanence rather than fighting it actually reduces suffering. They argue that while we can't eliminate our preferences for certain outcomes, we can hold them more lightly, recognizing change as the only constant. This experiential understanding, they propose, brings paradoxical peace—when we stop trying to freeze the world in place, we suffer less and find strange comfort in impermanence itself.

Employee Engagement Is Falling. These 5 Manager Tactics Actually Work. by Adrian Gostick

Adrian Gostick tackles the persistent challenge of employee engagement in his latest piece, offering a refreshingly candid perspective on why traditional approaches continue to fall short. Drawing from conversations with executive coach Marshall Goldsmith and other leadership experts, Gostick argues that the real problem isn't the tools companies use, but their fundamental mindset about engagement. He emphasizes that engagement isn't something organizations do to employees through programs and perks, but rather something built with them through meaningful relationships and ongoing dialogue.

What makes Gostick's approach particularly compelling is his dual focus on both manager and employee responsibility. While he acknowledges that employees must take ownership of their energy and growth rather than waiting for external motivation, he provides practical strategies for managers to facilitate this process. His five-point framework centers on deeper questioning, specific recognition, and helping team members reconnect with what energizes them. Gostick's core insight—that engagement happens through personalized leadership rather than standardized programs—offers a more sustainable path forward for organizations struggling with this decades-old challenge.

Why Senior Leaders Should Stop Having So Many One-on-Ones by Ron Carucci

Ron Carrucci presents a compelling case against the traditional executive 1:1 meeting structure through the story of Melissa, a healthcare tech CEO who inadvertently created organizational fragmentation. Despite her good intentions to empower her team and accelerate decision-making, Melissa's reliance on individual meetings led to critical information silos, where VPs learned about decisions affecting their work secondhand from peers rather than directly from leadership. This scenario illustrates how 1:1 meetings at the executive level can create four core problems: fragmented governance, functional bias, decision repackaging, and executive rivalry.

Ron advocates for replacing frequent 1:1s with "capability meetings"—small, cross-functional gatherings that reflect how value is actually created across departments. He suggests reserving 1:1s for quarterly development conversations while structuring regular meetings around enterprise capabilities like innovation or digital transformation. This approach brings together the two to four functions most essential to delivering specific value, ensuring the right people hear decisions in real-time rather than through secondhand briefings. The result, according to Ron's examples, is faster execution, reduced friction, and stronger collaboration among senior leaders who can focus on truly enterprise-wide strategic work.