By Vivian Phillips Husband, PhD 

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I did not arrive at my leadership philosophy by accident. 

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I arrived here through experience—sometimes painful, always formative. 

Early in my career, I bought into a powerful and destructive lie: that leaders should always know the way forward, and that asking their team for perspective signaled weakness. If you were truly “in charge,” you had answers—quickly, confidently, and alone. 

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That belief quietly trained me to think I needed to know everything about everything. 

So I became that leader—the one who held everything together. The one who absorbed complexity, took on too much, and positioned myself as the single point of clarity. 

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I was dependable, capable, and exhausted. And it was unnecessarily heavy. 

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I have since seen this pattern play out across organizations—especially during moments of pressure. During operational spikes, crises, or periods of public scrutiny, leaders often default to control. Decisions tighten. Information narrows. The leader becomes the bottleneck. 

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Research on decision-making under stress shows this is a common human response: when uncertainty rises, people often revert to habits that feel psychologically safe, even when those habits reduce effectiveness. 

 

Over time—and through real leadership work, not theory—I began to see something different. Effective leaders do not carry systems on their backs; they understand them. They understand that organizations are living systems—interconnected relationships, structures, and feedback loops working together to fulfill a shared purpose. Systems theory has long demonstrated that outcomes are rarely driven by individual heroics alone, but by the quality of communication, learning, decision pathways, and trust within the system. 

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And eventually, I learned something else that took me years to fully understand. The most effective leadership lives at the intersection of heart and strategy. 

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By leading high-stakes operations, navigating crises, responding to unpredictable volume swings, and guiding teams through sustained transformation, I learned a truth that reshaped how I lead. 

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When leaders hoard decisions, teams wait. 

When leaders invite perspective, teams think. 

When leaders create clarity, execution accelerates. 

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Effective leadership lives at the intersection of heart and strategy. So, yes leadership requires strategy—clear priorities, disciplined decision-making, and an understanding of how work actually flows. And it also requires heart—the courage to listen when the data is uncomfortable, the humility to ask questions when answers are unclear, and the compassion to recognize the human cost of constant urgency. This awareness shifted everything for me. 

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I became aware that not only is clarity kind—and far more powerful than control, it is a strategic act. Research on role clarity consistently shows that people experience less burnout and make better decisions when expectations, decision rights, and measures of success are explicit.  

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I became aware that courage is the bedrock of leadership. Without courage, every other virtue becomes hollow. Empathy without courage avoids hard conversations. Strategy without courage defaults to incrementalism. Vision without courage never leaves the page. Leadership research repeatedly points to this truth: leaders who are unwilling to sit with discomfort may preserve short-term harmony, but erode long-term trust. 

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And I became aware that compassion—real, human compassion—is not optional. Neuroscience research shows that people cannot do their best thinking when they feel unseen, unsafe, or disposable. Compassion creates the conditions for learning, resilience, adaptability, and sustained performance—especially during prolonged change. 

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This awareness made me more effective. 

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More patient. 

More strategic. 

More human. 

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More aligned with my purpose. 

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In practice, I found that when I led with heart and strategy together, the team improved outcomes and more importantly, I was able to contribute to a culture where people can think, contribute, adapt, and grow.  

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🎧 This essay is part of our quarterly conversation on Leadership That Liberates. Listen to the companion podcast episode at Change That Binds 

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References 

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Brown, B. (2018). Dare to lead: Brave work. Tough conversations. Whole hearts. Random House. 

Dutton, J. E., & Frost, P. J. (2003). Compassion at work. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(3), 393–426. 

Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. 

Edmondson, A. C. (2018). The fearless organization: Creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation, and growth. Wiley. 

Gallup. (2020). State of the global workplace report. Gallup 

Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. Paulist Press. 

Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1976). Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16(2), 250–279. 

Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Harvard Business Press. 

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 

Klein, G. (1998). Sources of power: How people make decisions. MIT Press. 

Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer. Chelsea Green Publishing. 

Rock, D. (2008). SCARF: A brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others. NeuroLeadership Journal, 1, 1–9. 

Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization (Rev. ed.). Doubleday.