The Leader is Already in the Marble
Updated: 6 days ago
Ana Postigo is an airline pilot, former CRM instructor, writer, and speaker working at the intersection of Human Factors, neuroscience, and human performance. Drawing on extensive experience in airline operations, she explores how cognition, behaviour, and the systems around us shape decision-making, performance, and safety in complex environments.
Sometimes, when you stop following an idea, the idea follows you. This summer in Florence, away from the usual noise of emails, news and everyday demands, I found myself thinking about something I hadn’t gone there to think about at all.
Psychology has a name for part of this: incubation. Stepping away from a problem can sometimes allow new connections to emerge. Perhaps better thinking does not always require more concentration. Sometimes, it requires space.
One idea followed me through Florence, but nowhere more than when I stood in front of Michelangelo's unfinished Prisoners.
Before reaching David at the Galleria dell'Accademia, you pass these enormous blocks of marble. Human figures appear to be emerging from them. A shoulder is visible. A torso takes shape. A face begins to appear. Yet parts of each figure remain trapped inside the stone.
They are unfinished, but perhaps that is exactly why they are so compelling. You can almost see the process of becoming.
Michelangelo is often associated with the idea that the figure already existed within the marble and that the sculptor's task was to reveal it.
Think about the judgment that requires. The sculptor has to know where to strike. But perhaps more importantly, he has to know what not to remove.
When strengths become limits
It made me wonder whether, at a certain point in our careers, we have development backwards. We tend to approach it through addition.
Another qualification. Another programme. Another framework. Another competency. Another technique.
What if, at a certain point, development becomes less about adding and more about removing? Because there is an uncomfortable paradox in success: the qualities that help us become successful can eventually become the qualities that limit us.
Confidence can help someone become a leader. Eventually, too much confidence can prevent them from listening.
Control can help a founder build a company. Eventually, that same control can prevent the company from growing without them. Perfectionism can produce extraordinary standards. Eventually, it can make delegation almost impossible.
Decisiveness can accelerate a career. Eventually, it can harden into certainty. Resilience can carry someone through enormous pressure. Eventually, it can make them tolerate pressure that should never have become normal.
None of these qualities began as weaknesses. That is what makes them so difficult to recognise. The strength and the obstruction can be made from the same material.
Human behaviour is shaped by what works. When a particular response repeatedly produces a good result, we are more likely to use it again. Over time, what began as a conscious strategy can start to feel instinctive.
That is enormously useful, until the environment changes and the behaviour does not.
When development requires subtraction
This is where development becomes uncomfortable.
Learning something new feels like progress. Adding another skill feels like progress. Letting go of a behaviour that helped make us successful can feel very different.
The executive known for having the answer may eventually have to resist giving it. The leader whose attention to detail helped build an exceptional team may eventually have to accept that somebody else will do the job differently.
The person who became indispensable may eventually face the uncomfortable truth that the next stage of leadership requires becoming less indispensable.
That is not weakness. It is adaptation.
Michelangelo himself knew something about adaptation. He worked under demanding patrons, changing commissions, and enormous expectations. The tomb of Pope Julius II, one of the major commissions of his career, was repeatedly redesigned and reduced. He was also commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling despite identifying primarily as a sculptor.
But perhaps the most interesting lesson for leadership is not that Michelangelo produced extraordinary work under pressure.
It is the nature of sculpture itself. You cannot reveal the figure by endlessly adding marble. At some point, creation requires subtraction. Perhaps development does too.
There may come a stage in our careers when the most useful question is no longer, “What else do I need to become?”But, “What made me successful that I now need to let go of?”
"Because sometimes the next version of us does not need to be built. It is already in the marble."
Read more from Ana Postigo
Ana Postigo, Airline Pilot, Human Factors Writer & Speaker
Ana Postigo is an airline pilot, former CRM instructor, writer, and speaker working at the intersection of Human Factors, neuroscience, and human performance. Drawing on extensive experience in airline operations, she explores the factors that shape how people think, decide, communicate, and perform in complex and high-pressure environments. Her work brings together operational experience with research from neuroscience, psychology, and Human Factors to explore decision-making, cognitive performance, resilience, error, and safety. As a speaker, she has contributed to events and conversations with organisations including BAC and Instituto Cervantes, translating complex ideas about human performance into accessible and practical discussions. Alongside her aviation and Human Factors work, Ana is also a children’s author, encouraging young readers to remain curious, pursue their ambitions, and believe in what they can become.
