INsight/ Leading From Within

Manila, 9 October 2026 — How do you lead a team that is also shaping you?

Story

The team of leaders was struggling to collaborate. Different priorities, unresolved tensions and conversations that went nowhere. The executive saw the difficulties and wondered why the team wasn’t making progress.

During a conversation, a colleague suggested that the tendency to reach conclusions quickly made it difficult for others to express different perspectives. The executive was surprised that providing clarity and direction was also limiting the conversation.

The executive had always valued decisiveness. Now that same quality looked different through the experience of others.

Challenge

Executive leaders carry particular responsibility. They are expected to see the bigger picture, create direction, exercise judgment and help others move forward.

Yet their position does not place them outside what is happening. Their presence affects conversations. Their responses influence relationships. Their decisions shape possibilities. And what others do affects them in return.

The challenge lies in exercising leadership responsibility while remaining open to how others are shaping us. As we influence what happens in teams, those experiences also shape the leaders we are becoming. 

Question

Over five weeks, we have explored how leadership develops through relationships, difference, practice, and way-making.

Each experience can bring us closer to a recognition that leadership happens through our participation in what is becoming. We are continually shaping—and being shaped by—the situations in which we lead.

What kind of leader are you becoming through your participation?

Concept illustration generated with AI