A Timely Insight

There’s a moment many leaders recognise, when the team seems aligned, energy feels high, and yet… progress doesn’t happen. Ideas stall. Meetings repeat. The same blockers come up again and again, quietly reshaped in different words.

It’s tempting to look for surface-level fixes, reframe the goal, adjust the process, rerun the survey. But often, what’s really holding things back isn’t loud or obvious. It’s quieter. Stickier. And harder to name.

These are what I call invisible anchors, the unspoken dynamics, outdated norms, or quiet fears that keep a team rooted in place, even when everyone says they’re ready to move.

Not all resistance looks like resistance.

Some of the biggest obstacles to change are deeply human:

• A leader holding tightly to a system they created, not through argument, but by quietly steering things back to what they know.

• A team member disengaging — not because they don’t care, but because they’ve seen too many starts that never stuck.

• A habit that once made sense, still playing out simply because no one wants to question it.

These invisible anchors don’t announce themselves. They show up in silence, routine, and subtle pull towards the familiar. They’re not always intentional. Often, they’re protective, a way to preserve identity, certainty, or control.

But left unnamed, they begin to take their toll.

Progress slows. Trust thins. Courage fades.

And no one quite knows why.

Toolkit: Naming the Anchor

Ask yourself — or your team:

You can also ask:

• “What’s a decision or behaviour we keep repeating, even if it no longer makes sense?”

• “What’s not being said — and why?”

• “Who or what are we protecting by not changing?”

Use this in retros, leadership meetings, 1:1s, anywhere safety and honesty can coexist.

The aim isn’t to fix. It’s to notice. Because the first step to change is seeing what we’ve normalised.

Leadership is as much about release as it is about vision.
It’s not about forcing movement — it’s about making space for it.

This week, we’re offering a thank-you gift to new members of the Beyond Work community:

🎁 Free Download: The Psychological Safety Toolkit

Normally €7.50 — yours free when you join the community

Join the Community Now

Once you join, you’ll receive an email with a download link and your unique access code.

The toolkit includes:

• A self-check for individuals and teams

• A retrospective guide for trust repair

• A checklist of leadership behaviours that support psychological safety

This is a practical resource designed to help you surface trust gaps and respond more intentionally when safety is tested.

If you know someone who’d benefit, feel free to share the link — membership is open, intentional, and growing slowly by design.

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