For years, I believed the story we were all told. That if I just leaned in harder, spoke louder, pushed further, and powered through, I could have it all. I thought success was a formula: show up, work harder, say yes, keep climbing.
And when that formula did not work, I did what so many of us do. I doubled down. More meetings. More dashboards. More late nights. More pressure on myself and on the people I led. We assume that if we just do more, eventually the outcomes will follow. But somewhere along the way, we wake up exhausted, disconnected, and questioning why the harder we push, the less progress we make.
The problem is not effort. It is method. Leaning in does not teach you when to let go.
We have been sold one of the most damaging myths in modern leadership: that authority equals control. We believe that because we have a title, a bigger paycheck, or decision-making power, we can control people, their performance, their behavior, and their motivation. That ultimately, the best of us can control results. But that is a falsehood. And trying to is one of the fastest ways to burn ourselves out and burn through the people we lead.
I have spent my career devoted to understanding one big question: what actually drives the way people behave inside an organization? For most leaders, the instinctive answer is systems, processes, and incentives. If performance lags, we install a better workflow. If engagement drops, we launch another program. If results slip, we restructure the org chart. But in my two decades of practice, I have seen it repeatedly: those solutions do not create lasting change.
What drives people is not training slides, policy memos, or shiny dashboards. It is the beliefs they hold about the company primarily. But also beliefs about the the leaders, the mission, the team and themselves. Beliefs about whether their work matters and whether they matter. And those beliefs are not built in executive retreats. They are built through experiences. The stories people hear, the actions leaders model, the recognition they receive, the decisions that get rewarded, punished, or quietly ignored. Every one of these micro-moments sends signals. Those signals shape beliefs. And beliefs drive behavior.
This is the leadership lever most organizations are missing. And yet, if you look at almost every B2B company, you will see the same promise: a technology that will fix everything. Better dashboards. Better workflows. Better automation. Technology can help, but it does not change what people believe.
We do though. That’s why I sold my business to Culture Partners. This isn’t a plug, I’m sharing why I BELIEVE in what I do. While most companies focus on systems, we focus on shifting beliefs, because that is the path to win.
Here is the reality. Results do not come when you figure out the perfect strategy and then tell people what to do. Results start with experiences. Experiences shape beliefs. Beliefs drive actions. Actions create results. When leaders flip that equation and focus on shaping the experiences that shape beliefs, everything changes. The great leaders today set the conditions for people to choose to take ownership, not because they are told to, but because they believe in what they are working toward.
If you have been grinding harder, holding tighter, and wondering why results are not following, you are not alone.
Maybe it is time to stop leaning in and start letting go.
Elsewhere in Culture
https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-amazons-hardcore-culture-reset-day-1-roots-2025-9
For example, Amazon’s “back to Day 1” reset is less about nostalgia and more about control. By flattening management layers, enforcing stricter cost discipline, and requiring five days a week in the office, Andy Jassy is pushing Amazon back toward its original scrappy identity. The launch of the “bureaucracy mailbox” is telling, with 375 processes already flagged for elimination, but the cultural signal matters more than the operational one. The message is clear: move faster, do more with less, and prove your value. For a company that once prided itself on invention and ownership, this shift represents a deliberate recalibration toward efficiency over experimentation.
The tension is clear. Cultures built on innovation thrive on autonomy, yet Amazon is tightening control at every level. Performance reviews now incorporate all 16 leadership principles, and raises are directly tied to a new “Overall Value” score. Only the top five percent of employees earn “role model” status, and recruiting data shows that top GenAI candidates are walking away over rigid office mandates and shifting incentives. Jassy is betting that removing bureaucracy and focusing on high-margin areas like AWS and advertising will restore Amazon’s competitive edge. The risk is that employees may feel micromanaged and disengaged, and without their buy-in, Amazon could lose the very entrepreneurial spark it is trying to reignite.
You cannot go backwards in time Amazon.
https://conference.shrm.org/blueprint
SHRM is making waves again with its upcoming event Listening Across Lines where Johnny C. Taylor Jr. will moderate an unfiltered debate on inclusion and diversity between two of the most outspoken voices in the country, Van Jones and Robby Starbuck. It is rare to see this level of contrast in perspective on the same stage, especially when the stakes for workplace I&D strategy have never been higher. With companies under pressure from Supreme Court decisions, executive orders, and increasing public scrutiny, the need for nuanced and courageous conversations is undeniable.
What makes this discussion compelling is not just the difference in viewpoints but the reality that leaders today are being forced to navigate an entirely new set of expectations around culture, compliance, and accountability. SHRM’s Blueprint sessions promise more than theory by offering direct access to employment lawyers and inclusion experts who are shaping the future of workplace policy. Whether you agree with Jones or Starbuck or neither, this event is designed to push leaders past surface-level talking points and into actionable strategies that are both legally sound and business driven.