Leadership transformation starts with self-awareness.

When Change Hits, Know What to Hold and What to Let Flex Need for Variety hits pretty close to home for me. When I completed my own Integrus360, this was one of those dials where I looked at the results and thought, I don’t know that I love that. Not because the data was wrong. Because I could see it. And once I saw it, I could think of plenty of moments when other people had probably seen it too. Need for Variety can be a little misleading at first. It isn’t measuring whether you like trying new restaurants, rearranging the furniture, or looking for a new adventure every weekend. The Need for Variety dial measures your response to change. When the plan changes, how do you react? When something unexpected gets dropped into your day, what happens in your face, your tone, and your body? When the circumstances you thought you could control suddenly aren’t under your control anymore, what does everybody around you experience? That’s what makes this dial so important for leaders. Change is going to happen. The question is what our behavior communicates when it does. I Like A Good Plan For a lot of my leadership life, I’ve been the guy who appreciates clarity, consistency, systems, and a well-executed plan. Those are good things. At least until I start believing the plan itself is the thing I’m supposed to protect. Years ago, I was helping oversee an event with some well-known worship artists. We had promoted that the event would end at a particular time. Our staff needed to clean the facility afterward and turn everything around for Sunday morning. There was a plan. And then the artists kept playing. And playing. And playing. They were comfortable responding to what was happening in the room—God was doing something special. Meanwhile, I was watching the clock and thinking about the staff waiting to clean, the schedule we had communicated, transportation, overtime, and every other ripple effect. My concerns weren’t imaginary. Those things really mattered. But my initial reaction also showed me something about myself. My instinct was to grab harder for structure because the circumstances had changed and now required a change to the plan. I eventually had to recognize that I could address the legitimate consequences without requiring everything to happen exactly the way I had pictured it. I needed to help our team adapt while still bringing enough structure to the situation to serve people well. That distinction has become really important to me. Both Ends of the Dial Bring Something Valuable There is nothing inherently wrong with a lower Need for Variety. Just like there is nothing inherently wrong with a higher Need for Variety. A leader with a lower Need for Variety can bring consistency, discipline, thoughtful processing, and the ability to protect a good system from being abandoned too quickly. A leader with a higher Need for Variety may bring curiosity, innovation, momentum, and the ability to see opportunity when everyone else is staring at the disruption. We need both. The challenge comes when our natural response becomes our only response. When pressure increases, a leader who naturally wants structure may dig in. We start asking, “What’s the policy? What’s the procedure? What did we already decide?” Sometimes that’s exactly the question that needs to be asked. But sometimes what we are really saying is, “Please make this feel predictable again.” On the other side of this dial, a leader who is energized by change can see the same disruption and immediately think, “New world. New opportunity. Let’s go.” That can be catalytic. It can also cause a team to abandon useful processes, move before people are ready, or continually chase the next idea without executing the last one well. The goal isn’t to become a person who always embraces change. And it isn’t to become a person who always protects the plan. The goal is to learn the appropriate balance between rigidity and flexibility is for each situation. The Question Isn’t Simply, “Should We Change?” I think leaders often get themselves into trouble because we treat an entire decision as though it belongs in one bucket. It's wither "We can’t change this” or "Everything is on the table.” But most real leadership decisions are more complicated than that. There are usually parts of the decision that absolutely need to remain fixed, there are parts we feel strongly about but could change, and then there are probably some details that don’t deserve nearly as much of our energy as we’re giving them. That’s why it's not helpful to ask questions like: What was the original plan? What do I prefer? What worked last time? The more useful que stions we can learn to ask are: What actually needs to remain true? What are my "wants" that are not critical to the mission? What will ultimately make no serious impact on the outcome? These questions help us start separating principles from preferences. What is actually non-negotiable? Some things deserve a firm grip: your mission, your values, safety, and integrity. Some financial boundaries matter. Some commitments matter. Sometimes a deadline really is a deadline. Healthy flexibility does not mean treating everything like it is optional. In fact, leaders with a naturally high Need for Variety may need to be especially deliberate here. Because when a new opportunity appears, it can be easy to become excited about what could happen without first asking what must remain true. One leader I coached is naturally much more comfortable acting first. When his organization needed a new facility, he had an opportunity to grow his leadership. He believed wholeheartedly that he could have found a building he liked and simply said, “We’ll figure out how to make it work.” Instead, he slowed the process down. He brought other people around a whiteboard. He invited feedback. He let them help him process several possibilities before he made the decision. Together, they decided what was nonnegotiable and what was flexible. He didn’t stop being an innovative, action-oriented leader. He added enough structure to his strength of flexibility that his team could trust where he was taking them. But Is It Essential—or Do I Just Really Like It? This is probably the area where those of us who have a lower need for variety get tripped up and have some work to do. There is a big difference between a principle (nonnegotiable) and a preference (flexible). And if we don't slow down enough to really consider the decision, preferences have a funny way of becoming policies. We have a preferred process. A preferred timeline. A preferred vendor. A preferred way of running the meeting. A preferred order for how things should happen. Maybe it really is the best option. But is it essential? That question can be uncomfortable because familiarity often feels a lot like wisdom. Sometimes we have done something the same way for years because it really is a great system. Sometimes we have done it that way for years because...we have done it that way for years. Those aren't the same thing. Preferences are things that matter—they may even be important—but changing them would not prevent us from accomplishing the real purpose of the decision. For a lower Need for Variety leader, this may be the most important category on the page because it gives us somewhere to put the things we care about without pretending they are untouchable. If that's you, this is an area where you can earn great credibility and influence with your team by conceding and letting them own some of these decisions. Some things really can flex Then there are the details where more than one healthy answer exists. The decision can be delegated. The process can change. The original plan can be tested and adjusted. Someone closer to the work might actually have a better idea. Circumstances may have changed enough that the plan we created six months ago is no longer the best path forward. Flexibility doesn’t mean those details are meaningless. It simply means we don’t have to control every one of them to protect the outcome. I once coached a production leader whose instinct was similar to mine. When something disrupted the plan, you could see the tension. But he also had experience doing improv comedy. So I reminded him of one of the basic disciplines of improv: receive what has been given to you before you shut it down. Instead of immediately listing the reasons the unexpected change couldn’t work, he stepped into flexibility first. The unexpected thing happened. He received it. Then he worked with what was actually in front of him. His environment became less stressful, and he became a better teammate—not because he stopped caring about excellent execution, but because he stopped needing every detail to stay under his control. Your team feels your response to change This is ultimately why Need for Variety matters: it affects trust. If my behavior is constantly unpredictable, my team eventually learns to wait before buying into anything. They don't know whether today's direction will still be the direction next week. On the other hand, if every change has to fight its way through my resistance, the team learns something, too. They may stop bringing ideas. They may become reluctant to raise opportunities. They may conclude that changing a plan simply requires too much energy. That kind of rigidity becomes its own form of organizational red tape. Healthy leadership requires us to flex. The higher you move in leadership, the more likely it is that two situations in the same day will require very different responses from you. One decision may require you to protect the boundary. The next may require you to get out of the way. The skill is knowing which is which. Shawn Maurer Executive Coach Integrus Leadership Hold firmly to what matters. Hold loosely to what doesn’t. That's why we created The Change Decision Filter . It's a simple tool designed to help you take a current decision, change, problem, or opportunity and sort its individual pieces into three categories: Non-Negotiable: What must remain true? Preferable: What would I like to preserve? Flexible: What can change? The goal isn't to convince you to embrace more change or resist more change. It's to help you bring the right amount of structure to the decision in front of you. Sometimes leadership requires a firm grip, and sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is loosen it. Download The Change Decision Filter and use it with a decision you're facing right now. You may discover that some of the things you've been protecting aren't actually the things that matter most.

Your team may not need more structure. They may need more clarity. Some leaders love a plan. They want the agenda before the meeting. They think through the details. They establish a process, set a deadline, and make sure everyone knows what happens next. Other leaders are more comfortable figuring things out as they go. They see possibilities quickly. They adapt. They pivot. They may have three new ideas before everyone else has finished processing the first one. Neither approach is automatically healthy—or unhealthy. What matters is what your team experiences on the other side of your leadership. That is why one of the 12 leadership behaviors measured by the Integrus360 is Need for Structure : a leader’s natural need for organization, planning, and structure in their day-to-day work. Used appropriately, structure creates clarity. But like every behavior measured by the Integrus360, a strength that is overused or underused can become a constraint. And when Need for Structure becomes a constraint, your team usually feels it long before you do. When Structure Becomes the Bottleneck I recently debriefed a leader on her Integrus360 results. She had a higher Need for Structure score, but I didn't need to see her results to know that. Her behaviors and background told the story: She showed up to our call a few minutes early. She did her homework and came prepared. She had also built a career around strong planning, organization, determination, and follow-through. Those are real strengths. Then we looked at the team data. The very behaviors this leader was proud of had become so rigid that her team felt suffocated. Instead of creating momentum, she had become a bottleneck. People were hesitant to bring new ideas forward, creativity had stalled, and too many decisions depended on the leader. I knew exactly how this leader felt when she realized that her team wasn't experiencing her leadership the way she intended. As a former CFO, my own high Need for Structure had served me well in an environment filled with regulations, standards, procedures, and details. But at one point in my career, a team member suggested an improvement to an internal process, and I shut the idea down. The existing process worked. It was familiar. It was orderly. I saw no need to change it. It was only when this team member came to me afterward that I recognized what had happened: I prioritized the "perfection" of the existing process over the possibility of improvement and progress. The process was working, but that did not mean it was the best process. That distinction matters. Healthy structure should help the team do its best work. When preserving the structure becomes more important than improving the work, it's an indicator that a leadership strength has started functioning like a constraint. Too much structure can quietly teach your team: Don't challenge the process. Don't bring me an unfinished idea. Don't experiment. Don't change anything without my approval. Over time, your most creative, out-of-the-box thinkers may stop contributing—or decide they would rather contribute somewhere else. When vision creates confusion The opposite end of the dial creates a different problem. I coached a different leader who was highly visionary and creative. When he saw new opportunities or came up with genuinely good ideas, which happened regularly, he sent them to the team. A new initiative. A new possibility. A new direction. When another good idea arrived, the previous project lost momentum as everyone turned toward the next one. From the leader's perspective, he was sharing vision, but from the team's perspective, the target kept moving. They could not always tell whether a new idea was simply something to consider or whether the leader expected everyone to change direction immediately. Projects began but did not always finish, priorities became harder to distinguish, and confusion and anxiety increased. The solution was surprisingly small. Before sending a significant new idea to the entire team, the leader began running it past a trusted direct report who had stronger instincts around structure and organization. Together they would ask: Where does this fit among our current priorities? Is this something we should act on now or simply continue thinking about? Have we provided enough detail? Who would own it? What would the timeline and desired outcome be? That one change reduced the number of idea-driven emails, gave the team greater clarity, and ultimately helped increase productivity. The leader did not have to stop being visionary. He simply had to add enough structure around his vision for other people to know what to do with it. Clarity Is Not the Same Thing As Control This may be one of the most important distinctions for leaders working on their Need for Structure. Your team needs clarity, but that does not mean they need you to control every detail. Appropriate structure helps people answer basic questions: What are we trying to accomplish? Why does this matter? Where does it fall among our priorities? What is my responsibility? What decisions can I make? What does success look like? When is this due? What happens next? When your team is missing answers to these questions, they have to fill in the gaps themselves. And data shows that we don't often make the right choice. Some will hesitate. Some will move forward and hope they interpreted you correctly. Some will spend unnecessary time seeking approval. Some will work hard on something you never intended to be a priority. Others will simply wait. Creating clarity also requires leaders to communicate where structure ends and space for creativity begins. Your team should know what must remain fixed—the things that can't change—but they should also know what can be flexible and where you are actively inviting them to create, adapt, improve, and solve problems. Healthy structure gives people a path. It does not require the leader to dictate every step along the way. Pressure Makes Your Natural Tendencies Louder Providing the right amount of structure can become even harder when the stakes increase. It doesn't matter if you have a higher or lower score on this dial, pressure tends to amplify a leader's natural Need for Structure. A leader with a higher Need for Structure may respond to pressure by tightening control, wanting more information, requiring more approval, and pausing for more certainty. They might also leave less room to experiment. A leader with a lower Need for Structure may head in the opposite direction: the plan gets abandoned, the team starts improvising, and priorities change in real time. In both cases, the leaders may feel like they are responding appropriately to the moment. But the team may experience something very different. This is why intentional leadership behaviors matter most when the pressure is on. If you find that your team is currently confused or in the middle of chaos or crisis, pause and answer these questions before moving forward: What is still the priority? What outcome are we protecting? Who owns the next step? What has actually changed—and what hasn't? Where can the team adapt without waiting for permission? Answering those questions will create stability without requiring rigidity. You do not need a rigid plan for every possible circumstance, but when circumstances change, your team should know what remains true and where there's flexibility. Laura Gardner Executive Coach Integrus Leadership Create Clarity Without Limiting Creativity Good structure helps people understand what matters, what success looks like, and how to move forward. That is why we created The Project Clarity Framework , a free practical resource designed to help you process a new project, initiative, or team priority before sharing it with your team. The framework walks you through four important leadership responsibilities: Define the direction. Clarify the desired outcome, why it matters, and where the work belongs among your current priorities. Clarify the work. Define the scope, ownership, plan, milestones, deadlines, and what success looks like. Establish the right boundaries. Determine what must remain fixed, what can be flexible, and what is open for the team to design. Invite contribution and maintain clarity. Give your team room to identify obstacles, suggest better approaches, ask for authority or support, and continue receiving clear communication as the work moves forward. Download The Project Clarity Framework and create clearer direction for your team without limiting their creativity. And if your team is already dealing with competing priorities, unclear responsibilities, stalled work, or constantly changing plans, the tool includes a BONUS RESOURCE: The Project Clarity Reset. This bonus resource includes a 20-minute meeting framework to identify the confusion, reestablish the priority, assign ownership, and confirm the path forward.

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Leadership effectiveness is often evaluated based on results, strategy, or intelligence. But long before those factors are fully understood, something else is already shaping your influence. Your presence. Before you speak in a meeting, before you present a plan, before you attempt to align a team around a goal, people are forming impressions. Research tells us first impressions can form in a matter of seconds; sometimes in less than one. That initial perception may not be perfectly accurate, but it is powerful in that it frames how others interpret everything that follows. That is why the Presence Dial inside the Integrus360 matters so much. Presence is not about charisma. It is not about personality type. And it is certainly not about performance. Presence is the combination of the energy and engagement you bring into a room, and the impact that energy has on others. When calibrated well, presence strengthens your leadership. When misaligned, it can quietly undermine your credibility & influence. When Presence Is Too Low Many leaders assume that if they are competent and committed, their influence will naturally follow. But competence alone does not guarantee credibility in the eyes of others. I have worked with highly intelligent, detail-oriented leaders who consistently scored lower on Presence. These were not weak leaders. They were disciplined. Focused. Task-driven. Their internal commitment was strong. But externally, their energy did not translate. To others, they sometimes appeared disengaged, reserved, or difficult to read. In some cases, team members interpreted their focus as indifference. In others, their lack of visible enthusiasm reduced confidence in their direction. None of that was intentional, yet leadership effectiveness is not determined by intention. It is shaped by perception. Because how others perceive your leadership is their reality. If your energy does not communicate belief, conviction, and engagement, people may hesitate to follow, even if your strategy is sound. Too little presence can limit your influence, not because you lack ability, but because others struggle to experience it. When Presence Is Too High The other end of the dial presents a different risk. Some leaders bring significant energy into a room. They are expressive, enthusiastic, and highly verbal. Their intent is often positive: to motivate, to inspire, to move things forward. But unmanaged presence can become overwhelming. High energy without awareness can dominate conversations. It can unintentionally crowd out quieter voices. It can create a dynamic where others feel talked over rather than invited in. In some cases, excessive enthusiasm can even be perceived as performative rather than authentic. When that happens, trust erodes. Presence is not about taking up space. It is about creating the right kind of space; one where others feel both energized and included. Too much presence can be just as limiting as too little. Presence Under Pressure Like every behavior measured in the Integrus360, your natural presence tendencies intensify under pressure. When stress increases, we do not become different leaders; we become amplified versions of ourselves. And sometimes it's our worst version. If your natural tendency is to withdraw, pressure may cause you to disengage further. Your focus may narrow to tasks and outcomes while relational signals diminish. If your tendency is toward intensity, pressure may elevate that intensity into overdrive. You may speak more quickly, interrupt more often, or push harder than the situation requires. It's not inherently wrong to have a higher or lower natural presence but when unmanaged, both can distort how others experience your leadership when it matters most. Pressure does not create presence problems. It reveals them. The Gap Between Intention and Experience One of the most important insights from the Presence Dial is this: how you believe you show up is not what determines your effectiveness. How others experience you does. You may believe you are passionate. Others may experience you as intense. You may believe you are steady and calm. Others may experience you as disengaged. You may believe you are motivating the team. Others may feel overshadowed. The size of the gap between intention and perception determines whether leadership effectiveness is either strengthened or weakened. Presence can make or break your ability to influence not because it defines who you are, but because it shapes how others respond to you. A Practical Step Forward The goal is not to change your personality. The goal is to align your behaviors so that your presence supports your leadership rather than limiting it. To help you begin that reflection, we created a simple one-page tool called the Presence Self Assessment Tool . It is designed to help you evaluate: The first impression you create The energy you consistently bring into rooms How you show up when the pressure increases Whether your presence invites engagement or restricts it Awareness is always the first step to any effective leadership growth. If presence can either strengthen or weaken your effectiveness, it is worth taking an honest look at how you are showing up. Download the Presence Self Awareness Tool , and evaluate how your presence is impacting your leadership today. Terry