INsight/ Cultivating Leadership Agency

Manila, 13 November 2026 — How do leaders cultivate and exercise their agency?

Story

She had worked for years toward a global leadership role. Now the offer was there, bringing recognition and opportunities she had hoped for.

But there was a problem. The new role required her to carry out a strategy she believed would take the organization in a direction she could not support. Accepting meant going against her convictions. Refusing meant giving up a long-held ambition.

For days, she struggled with the choice. Then another possibility dawned on her: why not challenge the strategy itself? The thought was unsettling. Still, she asked to meet with senior leadership, knowing she might lose the offer.

Challenge

Leadership agency becomes particularly consequential when professional ambitions, personal convictions, and organizational expectations are no longer aligned.

In those circumstances, the leader’s sense of what they can influence (efficacy), what they expect might happen (optimism), and what alternatives they can envision (imagination) will shape their choices.

The challenge for leaders is to exercise agency when outcomes remain uncertain and meaningful relationships or opportunities may be at stake. Their choices may also create space for others to contribute their perspectives.

Question

Agency begins with self-leadership: recognizing possibilities and choosing how to participate in shaping what happens.

Through collaboration, the leader’s individual initiative can expand into shared agency as others contribute their experiences, perspectives, and choices.

Where in your leadership might a possibility emerge if you reconsidered what you have assumed is beyond your influence?

Concept illustration generated with AI