Leading Beyond Autopilot
The Shift from Reactive to Creative Leadership
Mastering the inner game of practicing law isn’t about learning another leadership model.
It’s about changing how and where you think from before you act.
Every attorney has experienced moments when they weren’t leading from their best self.
- A difficult client meeting
- An unexpected adverse ruling
- A tense partner meeting
- A critical email
- A business opportunity that falls through
In those moments, it is human nature to react automatically rather than respond intentionally from the most adult, resourced parts of ourselves.
Leadership researchers describe these two fundamentally different ways of leading as Reactive Leadership and Creative Leadership.
The distinction is one of the most important I’ve encountered in my work with attorneys and other professionals.
Reactive Leadership: The Default Mode
Reactivity isn’t a character flaw. It’s biology. Our nervous system is designed to detect threats and protect us. That response serves us well in many situations. The downside is that it often becomes our default way of being – subtly or overtly responding to life as a threat.
Reactive leadership is driven by the desire to avoid mistakes, maintain control, prove ourselves, or protect something. In short, we play not to lose rather than play to win.
- Work feels like a series of problems to navigate
- Leadership focuses on managing risk rather than creating possibility
When we lead reactively, our perspective narrows. We are less curious, less collaborative, less adaptable. We innocently repeat familiar patterns without realizing it and without knowing how narrow our view actually is when we approach our life and work from that perspective.
Lawyers can be especially prone to lead themselves and their practices reactively. Legal training teaches us to vigilantly anticipate risk, seek out and identify weaknesses, and diligently prepare for what could go wrong.
That mindset serves us in a certain way in our professional role as attorneys, but if we do not learn to manage it, that mindset costs us more than it gives us and blocks us from flourishing.
Creative Leadership: Leading with Intention
Creative leadership doesn’t mean being artistic or imaginative. It means leading from a place of purpose rather than protection. Our practice becomes a canvas on which we build the kind of life and work we want for ourselves, our clients, and our teams.
Creative leaders play to win. They don’t play not to lose. The difference between the two is an indispensable key to flourishing.
Creative leaders:
- Remain grounded under pressure
- Stay connected to their values and their emotions
- Integrate analytical thinking with emotional intelligence
- Communicate and connect with others authentically
- Actively seek out collaboration
- Make courageous decisions even when certainty isn’t available
- Most importantly, they choose their responses instead of being driven by habitual, fear-based reactions
Research consistently shows that leaders operating from this orientation are more effective, more satisfied, and their organizations perform better financially.
Where the Enneagram Fits
One reason I value the Enneagram so highly is that it helps us see clearly, sometimes for the first time, our particular way of staying safe in the world, going back to our early childhoods. We see how our strengths, when overplayed, can become our greatest liability. So much of our default way of being simply feels like “reality” to us – we have never really considered anything else.
The Enneagram shines a light on those largely unconscious ways of being.
It helps us understand not only how we react, but why.
As awareness grows, so does our capacity to move beyond our habit nature and lead more intentionally from a broader range of tools.
In other words, we shift from reactive leadership toward creative leadership.
How We Make the Shift
Moving from reactive to creative leadership isn’t about trying harder. It’s about becoming more present and leading from a place of strength, compassion, and purpose.
Through executive coaching, team coaching, and leadership workshops, I partner with attorneys to recognize the patterns that shape their leadership and develop new ways of thinking, relating, and taking action.
The work is both deeply personal and highly practical.
Over time, it changes not only how you lead—but how you experience practicing law.
Imagine Leading Differently
If you’re ready to broaden new horizons for yourself and how you practice law, I’d love to help you begin that journey. Let’s set up a time.