My daughter’s hair

Leadership, like my daughter’s hair, is not a problem to be managed into convenience.

Big. Wild. Gloriously untamed.

Family. Friends. Well-meaning strangers. “Just cut it. It'll be easier. Quicker. Less hassle."

And maybe they're right. Maybe it would be…

Here's the thing: my daughter and I love her hair.

I don't experience the knots as a hardship. Finding the right brush, learning what Asian-European hair needs, taking the time to care for it properly – I experience that as a privilege.

It adds beauty to her. To every room she walks into.

Nobody is dragging me through it.

I'm choosing it. Gratefully.

And I think about that often when I sit with leaders.

So many walk in carrying the weight of the world: shoulders bent, jaw set, eyes that haven't rested in months.

• Leading as an obligation.

• Leading as a challenge.

• Leading as responsibility for everything that could go wrong.

And I also see what it costs.

The joy, gone.

The presence, gone.

The why buried beneath the next crisis.

So, we reframe.

Not dragging colleagues through difficult times –  instead being trusted to walk alongside them.

Not needing to know everything – simply holding the privilege of co-creating conditions where others discover what they know.

Not carrying people –  helping them become more fully themselves.

Because leadership, like my daughter’s hair, is not a problem to be managed into convenience.

It is something to be tended 🌱

With care. With curiosity. With love.

The knots are part of it.

And so is the privilege.

What perspective would help you build something valuable in your wake?