This weekend, I found myself drawn to the snow globes I’ve collected from cities around the world. A small shake, a sparkly snowfall, and the scene softens into view. As I watched the snowfall settle across our street, it struck me that this was a gift rather than a burden. In between shovelling, there were moments to reflect, in the moment and on the moment. That distinction matters more for leaders that we often admit.
One of those snow globes sits on my desk year-round. It came from a visit to animation studio in California years ago. Inside is Tinker Bell, frozen in mid-motion, suspended between flight and stillness. I keep it there as a talisman. A reminder that creative work – and leadership – requires momentum and pause. Movement without reflection becomes noise. Stillness without engagement becomes withdrawal.
My Talisman - Tinkerbell Snow Globe
Are you on the dance floor or the balcony above it?
Leadership scholar Ronald Heifetz describes a key moment in developing our leadership as the ability to move between the dance floor, where action is immediate and the balcony where patterns, dynamics and consequences become more visible. Many leaders I work with struggle to leave the dance floor. That’s where momentum lives. It feels productive. It’s familiar. Especially to newly promoted leaders, technical competence and decisiveness were often what earned them the role in the first place. The signs of being stuck on the dance floor are easy to spot: issuing direction without consultation, moving too quickly to solutions, feeling resistance without understanding why and sensing something is off, but not being able to name it.
The balcony doesn’t remove complexity but what it does is give leaders a fighting chance to see it more clearly. From above, patterns emerge, emotional currents become visible. What felt urgent gains perspective. Conversations become easier to read. Decisions that felt compressed are given room to breathe. The real work, though, is not choosing one or the other. It’s learning to do both at once.
Leadership at Altitude
I saw leadership at altitude during a meeting in California with my CEO at the time and Jeffrey Katzenberg, then head of DreamWorks. The three of us were ushered down a long, dark corridor and into a stark room painted almost entirely black. The setting itself carried pressure. When my CEO finished the opening exchange and nodded in my direction, Jeffrey swivelled his chair sharply toward me. His attention was immediate and absolute. I had prepared relentlessly and carefully for this moment. I knew the material cold. Still, what followed wasn’t a pitch. It was a reframing.
Jeffrey asked three questions. Tough, precise and generous all at once. How were we developing master storytellers, not just technical animators? What would truly raise the capability of incoming students? And then the question that shifted everything, “How can I help?” In those few minutes, he redirected the conversation away from performance and toward purpose. He wasn’t reacting to our proposal. He was working the moment, aligning it with a longer horizon.
As my CEO and I walked out, neither of us spoke. My body felt the aftershock of intensity. I felt a large, single, drop of sweat roll down my back. But what stayed with me was the clarity of Jeffrey’s presence. Amid power, pace, and pressure, he stayed both fully in the room and unmistakably above it. Most leaders don’t lose effectiveness because they lack answers. They lose it because they lose altitude.
As we see in this story, the capability to master this practice is to see yourself acting in the moment and on the moment. To achieve this fluid motion, try these three practices to consciously toggle between the two worlds.
· Track what is happening while at the same time, note how you are acting inside the moment. Explore your assumptions, gauge your energy levels and emotions. Ask yourself, “What am I noticing about myself that could shape what happens next?”
· Next, consider your stance. Decide how you need to show up before you decide how you will work the problem. Acting In the moment, will you be a stabilizer, a challenger, a translator or a provocateur? Whatever stance you choose will directly impact the outcome. Ask yourself, “What does this moment require from me and what needs to be addressed?”
· A final practice you’ll want to grow is the ability to see patterns within all of the individual dance floor moves. As relational leaders encounter challenges, they slow momentum without shutting it down by naming the dynamics, without blaming people. These leaders are fully engaged, empowering others to reshape language, emotion, flow and energy. They might ask, “I notice we’re moving quickly to agreement, is there anything we’re missing here?”
Leadership presence plays a powerful role in this practice. Daniel Goleman’s work reminds us that leaders who are in tune with their inner world bring calm and clarity to others. When pace accelerates, leaders sometimes grow sharp without awareness. Our tone becomes brisk. Our listening becomes thin. Our decisions tighten. By toggling between being in the moment and on the moment, leaders widen their view, carry uncertainty with confidence, and create space for others to contribute. Before entering an important conversation or meeting, ask yourself, what is the atmosphere in the room telling me before a single word is spoken?
As I watch the snow gather on my windowsill, I am reminded that leadership rests less in rapid movement and more in deliberate arrival. A fresh snowfall can feel like a disruption, yet it also offers a moment of gentle recalibration. It allows leaders to see what busyness often conceals. When leaders invite themselves into this kind of quiet reflection, the next step becomes clearer, and teams feel a deeper steadiness in the process. As you move through this snowy week, I invite you to explore what winter is offering your leadership.