One of the hardest lessons I learned was that being right about what needs to change doesn’t mean you’ve gotten how to change it right. There were moments when I underestimated the intention behind past decisions, even if they no longer served where we needed to go.
That forced me to slow down in a different way—by asking better questions. By bringing in advisors. By taking the time to understand not just the strategy, but the emotional connection people had to it.
There were moments when the most important thing I could do wasn’t explain the strategy, but acknowledge the uncertainty. Naming what I didn’t have fully figured out created space for others to contribute what they saw. Vulnerability didn’t slow us down — it sharpened us.
And humility didn’t weaken my leadership. It strengthened it.
- Leadership sits at the intersection of clarity and connection
A quarter into the year, we were building our annual plan, and the urgency was real. I took control to create clarity, but I didn’t explain why that was necessary at that moment. For a team used to building things together, it felt abrupt.
Once I articulated my intention, everything shifted. People understood the need for speed. Trust deepened. Clarity builds connection faster than control or consensus ever could.
That shift also required rethinking hierarchy—not by removing accountability, but unnecessary barriers to insight. When people felt safe challenging ideas, better thinking surfaced faster. The best signals often came from the people closest to the work.
Great leaders know when to step in and when to step back. Connection and clarity aren’t opposites. They’re partners.
- Letting go doesn’t mean losing accountability
As your scope of responsibility grows as CEO, so does what you have to let go of. Leading at this level required trusting my team, their teams, and the systems we were putting in place.
That didn’t mean relinquishing accountability, but evolving how I defined control. I don’t need to hold every lever. I’ve learned to be more discerning about where my presence creates momentum and where it might unintentionally slow things down.
Leadership at scale isn’t about holding tighter. It’s about trusting deeper.
