What tension are you trying to eliminate that you may actually need to learn to lead more effectively?
It’s a question worth sitting with.
Leaders are frequently expected to provide answers, reduce uncertainty, resolve conflict, and keep people moving forward. Those expectations can create the impression that every uncomfortable tension represents a problem waiting to be solved.
But not every tension is a problem.
Some tensions are permanent features of leadership:
These demands can pull in opposite directions, but both sides often contain something essential. Trying to eliminate one side may provide temporary relief while creating larger problems elsewhere.
The goal of effective leadership is not always to make the tension disappear. Sometimes, the real work is learning how to hold it without becoming reactive, rigid, or overwhelmed.
A problem generally has a solution. A process is inefficient, a deadline has been missed, responsibilities are unclear, or a decision must be made. Leaders gather information, identify the cause, choose a course of action, and address the problem.
A tension is different.
Tensions involve competing needs that remain interconnected over time. Leaders cannot permanently choose performance over people, for example, because sustained performance depends on the people doing the work. They cannot choose innovation while completely abandoning stability because meaningful innovation requires enough structure to support experimentation and implementation.
The tension continues even after a decision is made.
This is where otherwise capable leaders can get stuck. They approach an ongoing tension as if it were a problem that should have a final answer. When no permanent solution emerges, they may interpret the discomfort as evidence that they have failed, chosen incorrectly, or need to exert more control.
They may double down on one side:
Every strength becomes a liability when it is applied without balance or context.
Either-or thinking is appealing because it simplifies complexity. It gives us a clear villain, a clear answer, and the comforting sense that uncertainty can be controlled.
People or profit.
Empathy or accountability.
Move quickly or proceed carefully.
Lead confidently or admit uncertainty.
Real leadership is rarely that tidy.
Harvard Business Impact’s 2026 Global Leadership Study examined responses from 1,139 senior leaders and HR and learning professionals across multiple industries and more than 15 countries. The study found that organizations are navigating significant tensions, including the need to deliver current performance while simultaneously investing in reinvention.
The report does not suggest choosing one and abandoning the other. Current performance helps fund reinvention, while reinvention protects future performance. The leadership challenge is learning to manage the relationship between them.
That same principle applies to many human and organizational challenges. The two sides are not always enemies. They may be interdependent forces that need to remain in conversation with each other.
Research on the paradox mindset supports this perspective. A paradox mindset is the capacity to recognize that competing demands can be contradictory and interconnected at the same time. Rather than treating tension as evidence that something has gone wrong, leaders can learn to view it as information—something to examine, engage, and work with.
This does not mean avoiding decisions or refusing to take a stand. Leadership still requires discernment, accountability, and action. It means resisting the urge to oversimplify a situation merely because complexity is uncomfortable.
When leaders become convinced that only one side can be right, several predictable patterns can emerge.
They may become overly controlling because uncertainty feels unsafe. They may rush a decision to escape discomfort rather than because the decision is sound. They may dismiss employee concerns as resistance or, at the opposite extreme, avoid holding people accountable because they fear appearing unsupportive.
They may also communicate false certainty.
Employees usually know when a situation is complicated. Pretending otherwise does not necessarily increase confidence in leadership. It can erode trust, especially when people are expected to ignore contradictions that are obvious in their daily work.
A leader can acknowledge uncertainty without becoming directionless.
A leader can care about an employee’s circumstances while still addressing performance concerns.
A leader can support well-being without abandoning organizational expectations.
A leader can make a decisive choice while remaining open to new information.
This is not indecisiveness. It is mature leadership.
Leadership coaching can provide a space where complexity does not have to be immediately reduced or defended against. Instead, the leader can slow down long enough to understand what each side of the tension represents.
The first step is often identifying the competing demands clearly.
A leader may initially say, “My team is resistant to change.” Through coaching, the fuller tension may emerge: the organization needs to move quickly, while employees need enough clarity and involvement to trust the change.
Another leader may say, “I need to hold this employee accountable.” The underlying tension might involve maintaining performance standards while preserving dignity, curiosity, and psychological safety.
Once the tension is named, the coaching conversation can move beyond deciding which side is correct.
Useful questions might include:
These questions help leaders develop greater self-awareness, cognitive flexibility, and tolerance for uncertainty. More importantly, they help leaders translate reflection into action.
There is an important distinction here: holding competing needs does not mean creating endless compromise or keeping everyone happy.
Sometimes a leader must make a difficult decision. Resources may be limited. A position may need to be eliminated. A project may need to stop. An employee may need to be confronted about behavior that is harming the team.
A both-and mindset does not remove the consequences of leadership. It changes how leaders arrive at decisions and how they carry them out.
The leader can be compassionate and clear.
The leader can acknowledge loss and maintain direction.
The leader can listen to dissent and still make the final decision.
The leader can protect today’s performance while investing in tomorrow’s capacity.
Holding tension wisely is not passivity. It is the discipline of refusing to become so attached to one legitimate need that every other need becomes invisible.
One of the most useful recommendations in the 2026 Global Leadership Study is that organizations develop leaders who are “architects of inquiry” rather than simply “owners of expertise.”
This shift has significant implications for leadership development.
Expertise matters. Leaders need knowledge, experience, and sound judgment. But in complex environments, expertise alone can become a trap if leaders begin to believe their value depends on always knowing the answer.
Leaders who see themselves as architects of inquiry ask better questions. They invite perspectives that challenge their assumptions. They help teams think rather than training them to wait for instructions. They create conditions in which collective intelligence can emerge.
This is also where coaching leadership creates sustainable value.
A coaching leader does not abandon authority or accountability. The leader uses questions intentionally to strengthen other people’s capacity for reflection, ownership, problem-solving, and growth.
Instead of immediately asking, “How do I fix this?” the leader might ask:
The quality of leadership often depends on the quality of the questions a leader is willing to ask—especially when the answers are not immediate.
Think about one tension you are currently experiencing.
Write each side of the tension without judging either one:
We need to __________, and we also need to __________.
For example:
Then ask:
The goal is not to create a perfect balance. Leadership rarely offers that luxury. The goal is to respond more intentionally and with a fuller understanding of what is at stake.
The most difficult leadership challenges are rarely difficult because leaders lack intelligence. They are difficult because they involve human beings, limited resources, competing values, incomplete information, and consequences that cannot always be predicted.
No amount of expertise can make those realities disappear.
Leadership development must therefore involve more than teaching competencies or offering formulas. It must help leaders build the internal capacity to remain thoughtful, curious, and grounded when they cannot satisfy every demand at once.
The tension may not mean that you are doing something wrong.
It may mean you are standing in the exact place where leadership is required.
Before rushing to resolve it, ask yourself:
What tension am I trying to eliminate that I may actually need to learn to lead more effectively?
The answer may not make your work easier. But it may help you lead it more wisely.
Harvard Business Impact. (2026). No stable ground: Balancing competing tensions to win in an uncertain world—2026 global leadership study. Harvard Business Publishing. https://www.harvardbusiness.org/insight/2026-global-leadership-study/
Miron-Spektor, E., Ingram, A., Keller, J., Smith, W. K., & Lewis, M. W. (2018). Microfoundations of organizational paradox: The problem is how we think about the problem. Academy of Management Journal, 61(1), 26–45. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.0484
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