Common Dis-Empowering Beliefs Companies Hold

(Often unconsciously, often “just how things are”)

🧠 About People

• “People need to be closely managed or they’ll slack off.”→ Breeds micromanagement, kills ownership.

• “Only senior people can be trusted with big decisions.”→ Bottlenecks everything and disempowers talent.

• “If we give people too much freedom, standards will drop.”→ Confuses control with quality.

• “Some people are just not leadership material.”→ Freezes growth and locks people into labels.

🏢 About Work & Performance

• “Busy means productive.”→ Rewards activity over outcomes and burns people out.

• “We don’t have time to stop and think.”→ Guarantees repeated mistakes.

• “Mistakes must be avoided at all costs.”→ Creates fear cultures and risk aversion.

• “This is how it’s always been done.”→ Institutionalises stagnation.

🧱 About Structure & Hierarchy

• “Decisions must go up the chain.”→ Slows response and disempowers those closest to the work.

• “Our department’s success matters more than the whole system.”→ Creates silos and internal competition.

• “Rules exist to prevent failure, not enable success.”→ Turns governance into obstruction.

🔄 About Change & Innovation

• “Change is disruptive and risky.”→ Treats adaptation as a threat instead of a necessity.

• “Innovation is something other teams do.”→ Outsources thinking and accountability.

• “We’ll deal with that when it becomes a real problem.”→ Ensures problems become crises.

💬 About Voice & Communication

• “It’s not safe to say what you really think.”→ Silences insight and breeds compliance, not commitment.

• “Disagreement is a sign of disloyalty.”→ Replaces truth with politeness.

• “Senior leaders already know the answer.”→ Stops learning dead.

⚙️ About Capability & Growth

• “We can’t do that with the people we have.”→ Blocks development and creative problem-solving.

• “Training is a cost, not an investment.”→ Ensures skills decay over time.

• “If someone is good at their job, don’t move them.”→ Punishes competence.