Sitting In the 'And': The One Word That Improves Your Leadership

The Hidden Cost of Over-Rotation in Leadership

In 2001, there were whispers about a product that would be “bigger than the internet.” Code-named Ginger, it had investors predicting it would hit $1B in revenue faster than any product in history. In the height of the dot-com era, new products launched weekly, but this one promised to change lives.

On December 3, 2001, the reveal happened live on the news program Good Morning America.

It was the Segway PT (personal transporter).

Founder Dean Kamen said it would render cars obsolete. Cities could be redesigned around the two-wheeled machine, and the world would be changed.

It didn’t happen.

Maybe 1% of you reading this have ever ridden a Segway, and probably only on a vacation tour. The team and investors over-rotated so much on their vision that they didn’t consider the practical questions: Would people actually use them?


 
WHAT OVER-ROTATION LOOKS LIKE
When companies face pressure or uncertainty, they often grab onto an idea and push it too far. Applied universally, these decisions create the illusion of control, but ignore nuance, context, and balance. Over-rotation feels decisive in the moment, but it often erodes trust and creates more work to unwind later.

This pattern has been happening for decades.
 

Workspaces:
Offices were redesigned as open-space concepts to support collaboration. Leaders didn’t consider the noise and distractions and had to build quiet.


Data:
Companies were quick to embrace Big Data and data-driven algorithms without questioning quality, bias, or false correlations. Team reacted to every new metric instead of defining the questions they needed to answer, resulting in many decisions being changed.


Return-to-office:
Policies swung from fully remote to rigid mandate tracked by badge swipes, even when teammates lived in different cities. More time was spent setting rules than having teams define when in-person time truly mattered.


AI:
The latest over-rotation. Headlines lean into fear about jobs that will be lost. What’s missing is a thoughtful integration: how AI can strip away menial tasks so employees can spend time where they add the most value.
 

On the surface, these decisions seem logical. In an era of chaos and disruption, leaders crave stability. Employees want clear guidance. But over-rotation doesn’t create clarity. It breeds confusion, chaos, and costly reversals.
 

The real opportunity isn’t in either/or. It’s in learning to sit in the “and.”
 


WHY WE OVER-ROTATE

One-Size-Fits-All Trap:
Top-down decisions are easy to enforce but lack context. Return-to-office mandates are a clear example. Companies issue blanket rules instead of empowering leaders and teams to determine: When does it make sense for us to come together? One-size-fits-all may feel simpler, but it rarely delivers the engagement or performance the C-suite hopes for.
 

Riding the Trend:
When one penguin dives into the water, others stand at the edge and watch closely to see if predators are lurking. If it surfaces safely, the rest rush in together. Its caution mixed with herd behavior: no one wants to be the first or the last.

Companies behave the same way. That’s why layoffs often quickly cascade across an industry. While Elon Musk cut 80% of Twitter’s workforce, outrage dominated the headlines. But CEOs were quietly studying the outcome: How far can we cut before things break?

 
The Short-Sighted Shuffle:
Markets reward fast results. Boards demand quick wins. Leaders feel pressure to deliver in the next quarter and sometimes the next week. Under that weight, they chase actions that look good now but compromise long-term performance and organizational health. Over time, short-term fixes create bigger gaps that demand attention.
 

Fear of Being Wrong:
In cultures without psychological safety, leaders default to binary decisions that feel defensible. They can’t admit, “I don’t know,” or experiment with new approaches. Fear shuts down curiosity and deeper questions that might reveal better answers. Ironically, trying not to be wrong often leads to bigger mistakes.

 
Biased Toward Action:
When pressure rises, speed feels like progress. Leaders latch onto the first idea they understand and apply it everywhere. Sweeping moves look decisive, but often skip the critical question: What problem are we trying to solve? Saying “Yes” or “No” feels easier than sitting in the ambiguity of “It depends.” Thoughtful leadership doesn’t avoid risk; it builds the habit of pausing to ask why before leaping into what.
 
Over-rotate in gymnastics and you don’t stick the landing; in diving, you don’t make a clean entry into the water. These mistakes can be corrected in the next attempt. But in business, over-rotation leaves you unwinding not just a behavior, but also the mindset and culture that created it.


 
LEADERSHIP ISN’T BINARY
Too often, we try to solve complex problems with binary choices: ratings vs. no ratings, virtual vs. in-person, empathy vs. accountability. But leadership is rarely binary. Most decisions fall along a continuum.
 
Leadership is usually a debate between What’s right and What’s right. Not about What’s right and What’s wrong.
 
Yet many organizations still develop leaders as if it’s 1995, when leadership meant scaling the same behaviors across a team in the same office. Today’s work is different. Success depends on harnessing differences, not sameness.

Leaders must know how to quickly bring out the best in each person and seek a diversity of skills, thoughts, and perspectives. That doesn’t fit into a simple “Yes” or “No.” It requires sitting in the and.
 
 

SITTING IN THE “AND”
If I were back in my Chief Learning Officer or Head of Culture roles today, one of my guiding principles would be helping leaders embrace the and.

Middle managers and team leaders are closest to the work. They shape culture daily and have the greatest impact on performance. Equipping them with tools to pause, and better questions, and consider the “and” is one of the highest leverage moves a company can make.

Over-rotation happens when we force a choice where balance is needed. It’s natural, you sometimes need to cross the boundary to see the line. The key is recognizing it and pulling back before it defines your culture.

“And” creates room for nuance, psychological safety, and better questions. It helps leaders hold complexity without collapsing into binaries or extremes.

The next time you’re tempted to issue a mandate, follow a trend, or copy a competitor, pause and ask: Am I over-rotating? What would it look like to sit in the and?

That one word can change how you lead.