There’s a moment in almost every leadership meeting I sit in.
Someone leans forward, as if about to speak, and then leans back.
I’ve learned to watch for it. What happens in that half-second is rarely about the idea. It’s a calculation. Will this land badly? Will they think I’ve lost the plot? Is it worth the attention?
I know that calculation well. I’ve run it more times than I’d like to admit, and I told myself the same story every time. I’m reading the room. Being a team player. Fitting in.
It took me a long time to see what was really happening.
I wasn’t conforming. I wasn’t there at all.
The version of me in those rooms was agreeable and forgettable. Whatever approval he earned was never really mine.
Here’s what I believe now. The thing we’re tempted to hold back- the odd angle, the unpopular question, the idea nobody expected- is usually the one thing we bring that nobody else can.
Putting it out there carries risk. It should. Uniqueness without risk is just decoration.
But the reward sits on the same side of the line as the risk. It always has.
So the next time you feel yourself lean forward, what pulls you back?
