Letting go is A Leadership Superpower
Letting go of what made us successful and fixed ideas of what is right is the secret to becoming a great executive. Here's the why and the how to do it well.
We often view courageous leadership as standing up for our teams, having conviction in our ideas, and remaining strong in the face of conflict. But perhaps what’s more courageous in leadership in 2025 is letting go. Letting go of what made us successful in the past. Letting go of tried-and-true theories from the past. Letting go of fixed ideas of the best step forward. Only then can we grow into leaders who imagine new possibilities and adapt to new realities.
When I first managed a team, I needed to let go of my strong urges to do the work for my team. I would get in there and start editing a document. I would entirely update the storyline of a presentation. I would tell them exactly who they needed to talk to and how. In doing so, I limited my ability to focus on strategic work, and their ability to handle increasingly more complex tasks. I needed to let go of my identity as the person who ‘gets things done”. I needed to let go of my “way of doing things” that made me successful and encourage my team to get work done their way.
The business environment is rapidly evolving. New geopolitics are affecting century-old business models. AI is redefining how we engage with nearly every aspect of daily life and with each other. The only way to stay relevant through these transitions is to let go of all pre-existing notions of how things should be. Leaders and companies that adapted unlocked exponential growth. And those who didn’t are irrelevant.
Underlying the courage to let go is agency. We must believe in our ability to adapt. We can’t control our circumstances, but we have the capacity to shift. I often imagine a babbling brook to remind myself to let go. Water is the element of change. It is in constant motion and moves around obstacles in its path. It doesn’t stop and wait for permission. It exerts a persistent energy and finds a way to move forward.
When I first joined Meta, I kept trying to change my circumstances and those around me. That team isn’t executing the right way. That’s not how a strategy doc should be written. Why didn’t this person tell me about this issue? I had a mental model for what I thought was the “best way” to do something, and I spent all my effort getting others to see it and do it my way. I made enemies, my teams didn’t have much impact, and I was exhausted. I needed to let go of what I thought was best. I needed to let go of circumstances that I could not change. I needed to be like a river and find a way through the challenges to make it to the ocean.
As leaders, we get caught up in the trap of our past successes. Finding the agency to let go of what holds us back is the secret superpower of great executives. As a Chinese idiom says: “退一步海阔天空”: Take a step back, [and the possibilities are as] broad as the ocean and the sky.
That’s all folks! See you next week at 3:14 pm.
Yue
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