So goes the saying, “I’m in charge of the effort. God is in charge of the outcome.”
For leaders, this is much easier to live with when God is aligned with our Q4 objectives.
Leaders must drive results. Therefore, it would stand to reason that most leaders are not comfortable letting go of outcomes. In fact, it might feel irresponsible for eladers. We spend an enormous amount of time thinking about where we want to go and whether we’re making enough progress to get there. We hold people accountable and keep everyone on track. And yet, I have come to believe that one of the most powerful things a leader can do is surrender their attachment to whether or not they actually achieve the goal.
Can we be emotionally invested in this quarter without being emotionally attached to its outcome?
A leader who can surrender the outcome still has a clear vision of what they’re trying to accomplish. They understand the strategy, they take responsibility for their actions, and they serve the people who will help make that vision possible. They are deeply invested in the effort. But their attention is focused on doing the next right thing rather than worrying about whether they’re going to make it.
Think about how much energy we spend anticipating outcomes that haven’t happened yet. We worry about whether we’ll hit the quarterly target, whether the board will approve our strategy, whether our team will deliver, or whether the decision we made last week will turn out to be the right one. We run through scenarios in our heads, trying to control a future that doesn’t yet exist. Meanwhile, there’s a conversation we could be having, a problem we could be solving, or a person we could be supporting right in front of us.
And I wonder how much better we would lead if we redirected that energy toward the actions actually within our control.
I think attachment to outcomes is also where fear begins to influence leadership negatively. When we become emotionally dependent on achieving a particular result, we can start making decisions designed to protect that result at all costs. We hold on to strategies longer than we should. We become impatient with people who aren’t moving fast enough. We resist information that challenges our assumptions because accepting it might mean acknowledging that the goal is slipping away. Our attachment can actually interfere with the very results we’re trying so hard to achieve.
There’s another dimension to this that I find even more compelling. Sometimes achieving the goal isn’t what we need.
Consider a team that misses an important target. In the moment, everyone sees it as a failure. But perhaps missing that target forces the organization to confront a problem it has been ignoring for years. Maybe it creates the urgency to innovate, rethink the business model, or abandon a process that stopped serving the company a long time ago. Maybe someone leaves because things didn’t work out as planned, and a new person comes in who completely changes the dynamics of the team. Suddenly, what looked like a setback becomes the beginning of something much better.
How often have you looked back at something that didn’t go your way and realize it was exactly what needed to happen? I didn’t get into my first choice of college and thank goodness. I ended up at UW-Madison and it was way better than NYU would’ve been. I grew up in NYC and wanted to stay close to home but being forced into the midwest made me realize how neurotic NY had made me.
We don’t always know best.
Of course, we rarely have that perspective when we’re the boss. We tend to judge outcomes based on how closely they match our expectations. We decide that hitting the goal is good and missing it is bad, even though we have no way of knowing what either outcome will ultimately make possible. Sometimes the thing we were fighting so hard to prevent turns out to be the thing that moves us forward.
This is where surrender becomes such an important leadership practice. It requires us to accept that we don’t have complete control over how things unfold, even when we’re doing everything right. Uncertainty is part of leadership. The question is whether we can remain fully committed to our responsibilities without allowing that uncertainty to consume us.
And to be clear, surrender doesn’t absolve us of accountability. We still have to examine our results, learn from our mistakes, adjust our strategies, and take ownership of the choices we’ve made. In fact, I think surrender can make us more accountable because we’re less concerned with defending our expectations and more willing to see what’s actually happening. We can respond to reality with curiosity rather than fear.
When I think about the leaders I admire most, they have an ability to remain grounded even when things aren’t going according to plan. They care deeply about the mission, they work incredibly hard, and they hold high standards. But they also seem to understand that their job is to show up fully for the work in front of them and remain open to where that work might lead.
Counter-intuitive as it may seem, the more we surrender our emotional attachment to the outcome, the more present, adaptable, and effective we become in pursuing it.
We can be ambitious and surrendered at the same time. So this week, I’m asking myself a question that I think every leader could benefit from considering: Am I spending more energy worrying about the outcome, or doing the next right thing?
Elsewhere in Culture
What Would You Change If the World Might End Next Year? with Co-host John Frehse
What would you do differently if there were a 10% chance the world would end next year? Jessica and John explore a surprisingly useful thought experiment about mortality, priorities, and how we spend our time. From building a worship table to eating more ice cream, the conversation takes an unexpected turn before circling back to why cybersecurity has become an existential leadership concern.
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ceo-daily-brief-with-dr-jessica-kriegel/id1725350421?i=1000799385647 | Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/04aMWY6v623KOLMWqlMcwW?si=f69f8567ac544297
Could Hackers Be Inside Your Company Right Now? with Co-host John Frehse
Cybercriminals can spend months inside an organization’s systems before anyone realizes they’re there. Jessica and John examine how the Jaguar Land Rover cyberattack disrupted operations, why sophisticated attacks are increasingly difficult to prevent, and how employee disengagement creates vulnerabilities that technology alone cannot solve. The question for leaders is whether they’ve built a culture where everyone takes responsibility for protecting the business.
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ceo-daily-brief-with-dr-jessica-kriegel/id1725350421?i=1000799586961 | Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1uaFZ0MNXntdX3jAHRyy5L?si=a5c17ac5dff0494a
Can a Mission Statement Attract Better Employees? with Ancestry CEO Howard Hochhauser
When Howard Hochhauser became CEO of Ancestry, his first move was to rewrite the company’s mission statement. Jessica explores why a more specific purpose can attract employees who genuinely care about the work, how organizational values influence collaboration, and what changes when a longtime CFO becomes CEO and begins prioritizing long-term opportunities alongside financial performance.
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ceo-daily-brief-with-dr-jessica-kriegel/id1725350421?i=1000799788134 | Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/02StJxZAvoMhKCfaBK1Xhu?si=0091d28be6fc421c
And coming later this week…
What the David Bar Controversy Teaches Leaders with Co-host John Frehse
What happens when a company buys the supplier behind a key ingredient used by its competitors? Jessica and John explore the business strategy behind David protein bars, allegations surrounding its ingredients, and the competitive implications of vertical integration. Their conversation expands into how companies use acquisitions, intellectual property, and supplier relationships to gain market advantages, sometimes at the expense of competitors and consumers.
Why Isn’t Your Company Getting Value From AI? with Co-host John Frehse
Employees are finding ways to use AI to save time, but those individual productivity gains aren’t necessarily translating into enterprise-wide results. Jessica shares how Culture Partners is approaching AI adoption by connecting innovation to the cultural beliefs that drive organizational performance. She and John also examine the unspoken fear that greater efficiency could mean fewer jobs, and why smaller organizations may have an advantage in turning AI adoption into growth.