Leaders Create the Weather
Leaders Create the Weather: How to Build a Container for Growth
Jonathan Reams
The "Big Idea" Summary
We cannot "self-transform" in isolation because human capacity is context-dependent; to reach our highest level of performance, leaders must move beyond the "solo hero" mindset and learn to create a "Holding Environment" that co-regulates the nervous systems of those around them.
There is a phrase I often use, almost as a mantra: "Leaders create the weather."
It sounds poetic, perhaps a bit vague. But I find the metaphor speaks to something we all know deep down.
Think about a time you walked into a meeting where the leader was visibly anxious, defensive, or wanting to prove something. Maybe their insecurities led them to show up needing to appear as the smartest person in the room. You could feel it, couldn't you? The air pressure dropped. The fog rolled in.
In that environment, your brain’s predictive processing (which we discussed in the last essay) immediately shifted gears. It stopped scanning for creative possibilities and started ‘armouring up’ (to use Brene Brown’s phrase), anticipating threats and preparing defences to be close at hand. You likely shifted from engaging in your ‘best thinking’ to a more habituated reactive thought pattern. You played it safe. You survived the meeting, but you didn't grow, and you certainly didn't innovate.
This is the reality for leaders: Your internal condition—your "weather"—is not private. It affects everyone around you. We might think our inner life is totally private, yet while people are not exactly reading our minds, our brains (including the ones in the gut and heart) are always reading several types of signals, both obvious and subtle. Your weather creates the atmospheric conditions in which your team either withers or thrives.
If we want to close the gap between what we know and what we are able to do, we have to accept a fundamental truth that runs counter to several cultural assumptions. We do not exist as pure individuals; we exist in relationships: We don’t develop in a vacuum.
The Myth of the Solo Performance
In the previous essay I noted how the empiricist, materialist scientific worldview tends to break things into independently existing pieces. This influences how we tend to view leadership as a "solo performance." Related to this, we think of skills as things we possess—little packets of competency that we carry around in our backpacks ready to deploy at will. If I am a "Level 4 Leader," I should be able to walk into any room, under any conditions, and perform all of the competencies used to describe Level 4.
The more holistic view of Dynamic Skill Theory—the rigorous developmental science that underpins our work at Adeptify—tells a different story. It tells us that skills are context dependent.
For example, above I noted that if we sense ‘stormy weather,’ we often ready ourselves to use well habituated defences. The situation activates ‘vulnerability factors’ that can overwhelm our resources, including skills we have practiced with good intentions to use. This is our unconscious, Automatic Level response—when we don’t think, we just react from some deeply ingrained place.
If we have our wits about us a bit more, and the balance between vulnerability factors and resources is even, we might think first and ready a less reactive approach. This is a Functional Level. It is what you can do with minimal support in moderately challenging situations.
Now think about a time when a leader walked into a meeting with a calm focus. You could sense, even if you didn’t think about it, that their heart was at peace in that moment. This energy tunes into something deep inside. It aligns with and activates your resources. Your vulnerability factors recede for the moment. As well, if you slept well, didn’t fight with the kids, exercised etc., you are much more likely to contribute to the meeting at your Optimal Level.
While operating at our optimal level feels great, sometimes life presents us with challenges that are more than all our resources can manage. We need help. This can take many forms; a mentor giving advice, a YouTube video from someone who has been through this, your favourite AI / LLM filling in gaps in your knowledge, or a coach helping us process some limiting vulnerability factor we need to work through. Just like when working at a height beyond our reach, (like painting the second story of a house), we need some scaffolding. The Scaffolded Level of performance is where we can use support to experiment and gain new resources that we can later deploy on our own.
Think of a parent teaching a child to ride a bike. The parent runs alongside, hand hovering near the seat, lightly touching when needed to subtly stabilize their balance. The parent isn't pedalling. The parent isn't steering. But the parent’s presence and light touch—the scaffold—creates an environment that allows the child to experiment and eventually find their balance on their own.
As leaders, we often think we are supposed to be the ones riding the bike perfectly, popping wheelies while everyone watches. Or worse, telling others how to ride the bike without any kind of supportive process. The deeper work of leadership is becoming the hand hovering behind the seat. It is creating the Holding Environment.
Creating the Holding Environment
The term "Holding Environment" comes from the psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, to describe the physical and emotional space the primary caregiver provides to children as they grow up. Later, the term was adapted by Ronald Heifetz to help distinguish leadership from management and authority. He describes leadership as holding a psychological space that is safe enough to hold the pressure of difficult, adaptive work, but charged enough to prevent complacency.
How do we create this environment? It isn't about buying comfortable chairs or having "nice" conversations. It is about co-regulation.
This brings us back to leaders creating the "weather." As human beings, we are open systems. Our nervous systems are constantly tuning into one another.
In my conversations with clients, I often use the metaphor of a Tuning Fork. If I strike a tuning fork and hold it near a guitar string tuned to the same note, the string will begin to vibrate. It resonates.
As a leader, you are the tuning fork. If you are vibrating with the anxiety of "I need to be right" or "I need to fix this immediately," you induce that same vibration in the room. We often limit our focus and reasoning to the prefrontal cortex part of our brain that focuses on abstract reasoning through conceptual language. Yet research shows that the brain in the heart senses emotional energy, supports empathy and connection. The brain in the gut processes integrity and safety and supports intuition, or ‘gut feelings.’ (Although how these can be misinterpreted by the prefrontal cortex, i.e., cognitive biases, is a matter for another essay).
If you create stormy weather, people tend to seek cover. Their heart disconnects and their gut feeling is to prepare to defend integrity and boundaries. Vulnerability factors are in the foreground and resources a bit more distant. Your team's best thinking is lost in the fog.
To create a healthy holding environment, your first step is to calm the inner weather.
A short example. I remember reading Edgar Schein’s work on "Helping," where he described how when someone asks for help, our instinct is to immediately show how clever we are by giving the answer or advice to fix the situation. But true help begins with suppressing the need to be the expert and instead asking genuine questions to understand the person and their needs. We need to lead with curiosity and apply ‘humble inquiry.’
When you regulate your own need to look clever, be right, or your anxiety about a deadline, you act as a grounding force. You clear the fog. You allow the people around you to access their resources. You allow them to ride the bike.
The Learning Loop as a Container
This brings us to the practical application. What does all this (and more) mean for how we at Adeptify are working to support leader development?
In the previous essay, I briefly introduced the high level structure of Learning Loops. I connected them to the notion of natural learning, done in the middle of everything. It is designed to be a structured process to scaffold learning and development. You can take it as a holding environment for finding your growth edge (to borrow Jennifer Garvey-Berger’s term) and taking good risks to experiment and expand your resources.
When you engage in a Learning Loop—setting a clear goal, making distinctions, experimenting, and reflecting—you are essentially building a portable holding environment for yourself.
The Goal anchors you, so you don't get taken off course by stormy weather.
Making Distinctions helps you notice where you might already have some foundational resources and where you need to fill in gaps.
Experimenting is safer when you have a structure guiding you.
Reflecting and Revising allows you to process the "prediction errors" without shame, turning failures into data you can use to continually refine the process.
Walking Together
I have days where I am the source of the bad weather. (Just ask my wife). I have moments where my need to be "the expert" overrides my capacity to be the scaffold.
Adeptify is an experiment to apply this to ourselves, with the aim to understand how to be helpful for others. We want to hold the space for ongoing practice and inquiry.
Development is a team sport. We grow through the eyes and presence of others. We expand the horizons of our web of skills (resources), aided by others holding it steady.
So, as you move through your week, pay attention to the weather. Are you bringing the storm, or are you clearing the fog?
The Reflection Loop
Notice the Weather: In your next meeting, try to sense the "atmospheric pressure" in the room. Is it high-stakes and anxious? Is it low-energy and checked out? How might your own internal state be contributing to that?
Identify the Noise: What is the specific internal vibration that keeps you from being present? Is it the need to be right? The fear of looking incompetent? The urge to "fix" it quickly?
Find a Scaffold: Who or what helps you perform at your best? Is it a specific colleague, a quiet hour in the morning, or a structured process? How can you lean on that scaffold this week?