A Story I Hear More Often Than You’d Think
I was on a hike recently with someone who is incredibly talented—smart, seasoned, and well-respected. They were hired for their brilliance and experience, sitting just one layer below the executive leadership team.
As we talked about what it means to operate from a creative versus reactive leadership system, they sighed.
“I’ve thought so many times about how I could bring you in,” they said. “Or how I wish our CEO would hire someone like you. But I don’t think they ever would.”
I asked why.
“Because they don’t see any of this,” they replied. “They’re really smart though pretty controlling and deeply involved in everyone’s work. They hire really smart people, then don’t let them lead. The team is exhausted, disengaged, and quietly quitting. Yet, because the business results aren’t catastrophic, no one’s forced to look in the mirror.”
They went on to describe a company full of bright people running on fumes.
They stay because the market is tough and the pay is good, but the spark is gone. The executive team keeps wondering why collaboration is such a problem. Engagement surveys point to it again and again, yet the root cause is hiding in plain sight.
So I asked where they see the real collaboration breakdown.
“It starts at the top,” they said. “The CEO and ELT say they want collaboration, though they don’t model it.”
“Does anyone else see it this way?” I asked.
They laughed softly. “All of us. We talk about it amongst ourselves often. Though, when people speak up, they eventually disappear.”
The Leadership Pattern Hiding in Plain Sight
This isn’t an isolated story. I’ve had this same conversation, with leaders across industries.
They’re talented, mission-driven, and working in organizations that look successful on the surface. Yet beneath the polish, the system is quietly suffocating its own potential.
Leadership Circle data shows that more than 70% of leaders operate primarily from a reactive mindset—driven by control, compliance, or the need to protect.
When that happens, collaboration, trust, and innovation drop significantly. The culture becomes cautious. The smartest people stop contributing. Energy goes into survival instead of creativity.
And because the numbers don’t yet look too bad, and everyone is running around without pause, no one questions the pattern. These are high-performing companies that confuse motion and busyness with progress.
The Leaders Who Choose Differently
I work with organizations that have decided to make this shift intentionally. They see leadership evolution as more than just a development program, they see it as a strategic move.
As Bob Anderson shared on my Conscious InSights podcast, global companies like Roche didn’t approach this as a personal-growth initiative, they approached it as a business transformation strategy. They recognized that upgrading the operating system of leadership was the only way to stay adaptive in a world moving this fast.
A large financial services firm I partner with has built The Leadership Circle and the developmental journey into their core leadership infrastructure. Every first- and second-tier leader participates.
Not because anything is “wrong,” but because it strengthens both their culture and their business results. When leaders operate from a more conscious place, the organization makes clearer decisions, collaborates more effectively, and moves through challenges with far less drag. You can see it in how people work together and in the outcomes they’re able to deliver.
And then there are organizations where just one executive takes the leap. Even with one person choosing to step in, things begin to shift.
In one company I work with, a senior executive has been engaging in this work with me for the past year. As he’s shifted, he’s watched the system around him shift too: conversations that used to stall now open up, dynamics that once felt entrenched start to soften, and strategic initiatives that had been stuck in a holding pattern are now moving with more alignment and less resistance.
This shift creates a ripple, leader by leader.
A Place to Pause and Look Honestly
If you’re a CEO or on an executive team and this sounds familiar, it’s worth asking yourself:
- Are my leaders genuinely engaged, or are they just pushing through?
- Do people feel safe enough to tell me the truth?
- Are we just managing performance, or expanding our capacity as leaders and as a company?
Because if you’re not doing this work and if you’re not upgrading your leadership operating system, then this probably is your organization.
When the leadership operating system doesn’t evolve, the system finds its own way of letting you know. It shows up in the conversations that don’t happen, the ideas that never surface, and the leaders who slowly step back.
The good news is: once you choose to shift, everything else begins to shift with you.
For a Deeper Dive Into This Conversation
The first three episodes of Season 2 in Conscious InSights offer a framework for understanding the bigger picture—why these patterns emerge in organizations and what begins to shift when leaders evolve their operating system.
- Episode 13:Bob Anderson on the global shift from reactive to creative leadership
- Episode 14:The InSight Elevation Ladder and how leaders actually grow capacity
- Episode 15: The Four Quadrants of Change on seeing the whole system
Together, they give you a way to see the larger landscape behind stories like this one and how to make the shift and upgrade the operating system of your leadership and truly transform and evolve your organization.