Most of us seek peace, love, and significance.
All can be achieved by offering each to others.
Visions, missions, and titles guide teams in a shared direction, but linchpins want work that matters, and culture outshines even the most thoughtful strategy.
The race to revenue makes it easy to see why we’ve been seduced by surveillance, predictable profit margins, and forced productivity. Too often, the easy metrics borrowed from such compliance are the ones that get measured. This leads to endless meetings geared toward delivering information, avoiding blame, and asserting authority for those in charge.
The illusion is that control will lead to predictable results thanks to a maximization of resources. The problem is, humans are not a resource.
Extra Shot
Are your meetings led by a few people talking and most pretending to pay attention? Perhaps it’s time to get real by inviting the team to lead together.
Leaders who make a difference welcome tension from those who make a ruckus. We nurture initiative, even when results aren’t perfect. This creates enrollment, where enthusiasm is met with consistent action. Promises that are kept lead to progress, which makes intentional permeability easier to execute. When everyone on a team is proud of the impact they make, roles are better understood, contributions last longer, and appreciated energy would be missed if it were gone. This is work worth doing, and it sounds like a symphonic choir when everyone on a team is given a voice to sing their own song of significance.
Brewed From Within
#39 📖 Leadership
1 Comment
Ben McDougal · August 11, 2026 at 6:09 PM
ORIGINAL – 7/17/23
Most of us seek peace, love, and significance.
All can be achieved by offering each to others.
Visions, missions, and titles may help guide teams in a shared direction, but linchpins want work that matters and culture outshines even the most thoughtful strategy.
The race to revenue makes it easy to see why we’ve been seduced by surveillance, predictable profit margins, and forced productivity. Too often, the easy metrics borrowed from such compliance are the ones that get measured. This leads to endless meetings geared toward delivering information, avoiding blame, and asserting authority for those in charge. The illusion is that control will lead to predictable results thanks to a maximization of resources. The problem is: humans are not a resource.
Leaders who make a difference welcome tension brewed by those who make a ruckus. We nurture initiative, even when results aren’t perfect, which creates enrollment where enthusiasm is met with consistent action. We keep promises and our sense of abundance fuels intentional permeability that invites people to leave. We create a culture where everyone can be proud of the impact they make. Contributions are appreciated, knowing they would be missed if they were gone and the work is worth doing because it invites each human to sing their own song of significance.
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