When Restraint Becomes an Expression of Power.

We often associate leadership with the person who speaks first, responds fastest or wins the exchange. But some of the most consequential leadership decisions may be found in what we consciously choose not to do. In this edition of Purple Talk, I sit down with Georgia Mutagahywa for an honest conversation about being a woman in leadership, the discipline of restraint and the private cost of always appearing composed.

At the heart of our conversation is an important distinction: there is silence imposed on a woman, and there is restraint chosen by a powerful woman. The two can look remarkably similar from the outside, but they come from very different places. We reflect on those moments when we have the authority, access and words to win an exchange, but choose instead to protect the greater outcome. Not because we are unable to respond, but because leadership sometimes requires us to ask what our response will actually achieve. Restraint, then, is not the absence of power. It can be an expression of it.

This conversation left me sitting with a question that extends well beyond leadership: Do we respond because the outcome requires it, or because we need to prove that we can?