Research finds that as people climb the career ladder, they tend to treat their perspective as the entire story, ignoring their biases and blind spots. But when you adopt this “main-character energy,” everyone suffers: Your team experiences lower trust and performance, and you’re more likely to experience depression and loneliness. The strongest leaders stay close to their teams without making themselves the center of everything. Here’s how.
Get aggressively curious. The more power you have, the easier it becomes to rely too heavily on your own perspective. Humility helps counter that tendency. Consider how your actions could be affecting others in unintended ways, and approach conversations with genuine curiosity instead of assumptions. When you ask better questions and listen more carefully, your team becomes more collaborative, creative, and engaged.
Engage in job crafting. Help people connect their work to what matters most to them. Ask employees about their strengths, values, and the kind of work that gives them energy. Then look for ways they can bring more of that into their role. When people shape their work around what they care about, they’re more motivated, resilient, and invested in the team’s success.
