What Nobody Said and Why It Matters

You’ve been in this meeting before.

Someone presents a new initiative. Maybe it’s AI. Maybe it’s restructuring. Maybe it’s a new dashboard the ops team swears will “solve everything.”

Everyone around the table nods. There’s a polite question. A laugh. Someone offers a quick “makes sense.”

And it moves forward.

But something feels off.

The energy is too smooth. The room too quiet.
And if you’re paying attention, you notice it:

That one person who hasn’t said much.
Who’s engaged … but are they?
Maybe nodding, but not committing.

You don’t want to make assumptions.
But you also don’t want to miss it.

That moment?
That’s where real leadership begins.

1. Resistance rarely looks like pushback

Sometimes it looks like silence. Or fake alignment. Or even enthusiasm that comes half a beat too late.

When I coach teams through high-stakes conversations, the biggest mistake I see leaders make is assuming that the absence of objections means buy-in.

In high-trust teams, alignment doesn’t come easily; it almost always follows a little tension.

You want friction. Not to derail the process, but to test its strength.