Most leaders don’t struggle with caring about development, they struggle with knowing how to adjust as people change.

In this episode, we talk about a core issue in leadership development: binary thinking. Leaders are often taught to choose between trust or structure, involvement or empowerment, autonomy or accountability, when real development requires holding these together.

This episode introduces a practical way to think more clearly about how people grow through the work, not outside of it. You’ll be introduced to Trust, Structure, and Involvement as a lens for noticing how you’re already leading, and how to adjust intentionally as people grow, stall, or step into new responsibility.

We also reframe the 9-box, not as a label or verdict, but as a snapshot in time that helps leaders locate where someone is right now, so they can choose how to show up next.

This isn’t about new tools or fixing people.

It’s about helping leaders stop guessing, stop swinging between extremes, and start leading with clarity over time.

If you’ve ever thought, “Something’s off, but I don’t know what to change,” this episode gives you the map before the journey.