Over the weekend I attended two meetings of our homeowners association. One was a group of neighbors who were up in arms, and the other was the official meeting. The contrast was striking.

Great leaders don’t have all the answers — they create space for their team to lean in. The leaders who struggled in those meetings were the ones who got defensive. The ones who succeeded were the ones who listened, asked questions, and made people feel heard before offering solutions. That same skill — leaning forward with curiosity instead of leaning back with defensiveness — is what separates good leaders from great ones in business too.