Feeling The Strain: A Real-World Guide To Leading In Polarized Times

Forbes

5 hours ago

The referee stands in the middle of the rope of the tug-of-war
If you're a manager today, you've probably felt it.
One group pushes for change. Another cautions against it. You're expected to move fast and be careful. Lead boldly and listen closely. Protect what works while building what's next.
That stretch you're feeling? It's not confusion. It's polarity.
And it's baked into your job.
You're not just holding workplace tensions. You're leading in a world defined by them—competing ideologies, global instability, and rising economic divides. The stakes are bigger than ever. So is the strain.
On one side are the people who lean toward caution. They worry about risk. They want to hold the line until things feel safer. These are your Stabilizers.
On the other side are those who lean into possibility. They think three steps ahead. They want to move, explore, expand. These are your Amplifiers.
They're not enemies. But they are opposites. Their instincts pull in different directions. And you're in the middle. Feeling the rope tighten. Trying not to snap.
Imagine a leadership meeting around a new AI rollout. The Amplifiers are already drawing up a roadmap. They see market edge, scale, intelligence.
Then a Stabilizer speaks up: 'What if the training data is flawed? We're about to automate decisions we haven't even validated.'
The room stiffens. The moment turns. It's not sabotage. It's stewardship.
One side pushes for momentum. The other pulls for stability. Both are trying to help. And the friction is not a threat. It's the force that can shape something better.
When that tension is visible and held (either not ignored or shut down), it leads to better outcomes. Amplifiers get grounded. Stabilizers get curious. And the team builds something neither could create alone.
This isn't dysfunction. It's design. And it shows up everywhere.
You're not managing one contradiction. You're holding many at once.
You might even have your own preferences. But your role is not to choose a side. It's to hold the whole.
According to Gallup, managers are more burned out than the people they lead. They work longer hours, face more interruptions, and navigate more emotional complexity.
Nearly half say they deal with multiple, competing priorities every day. Even high-performing managers describe their work as reactive and fragmented.
Almost a third report that job demands interfere with their personal life.
This isn't just pressure. It's polarity overload. You're not failing. You're absorbing complexity the system doesn't know how to hold.
A polarity isn't a problem to solve. It's a tension to manage — a concept introduced by Barry Johnson, who studied how leaders must navigate interdependent forces that are both necessary and enduring. These are not either-or choices. They are both-and dynamics that must be balanced over time.
Stability brings structure, clarity, and risk management. But overused, it becomes inertia.
Amplification brings speed, energy, and possibility. But left unchecked, it becomes chaos.
Polarity is what keeps the system alive. And once you name it, you can lead it.
If you've ever felt torn between team voices, now you know why. Both instincts matter. Both are incomplete alone.
There's been a surge of interest in Both/And thinking as a way to move past binary decisions. At its best, it helps leaders widen their lens and hold complexity without collapsing into either-or debates. But in a multipolar world filled with contradictions, disruption, and high-stakes decisions, just saying Both/And is no longer enough.
It risks becoming a conceptual shortcut. A way to simulate harmony without doing the harder work of tension-holding. A way to appease competing voices while avoiding discomfort. And a way to look thoughtful without being decisive.
This is where Amplifiers and Stabilizers offer something more real—and more difficult. Each brings not just a perspective, but conviction. They don't arrive with neutral input. They arrive with stakes. What feels urgent to one feels reckless to the other. What feels responsible to one feels resistant to the other.
So while Both/And can help name the polarity, it can't hold the pull.
Amplifiers and Stabilizers aren't the problem. They're the gift. Each brings something essential. That's why Both/And thinking gained traction—it encouraged leaders to honor opposing instincts rather than silence one side. But the real work isn't just naming both. It's feeling the force between them. It's engaging with the discomfort. It's choosing—not to flatten the tension, but to lead through it.
Change leadership is not about finding the easiest middle path. It's about staying with the mess. Not resolving every tension, but recognizing what each side is trying to protect—and what both might be missing.
Diplomacy and negotiation will only take you so far. Eventually, leaders must engage with the tug itself. They must absorb the discomfort of multiple truths and still move toward strategy. This is not a rejection of Both/And. It's a refusal to stop at its surface.
Let's go back to that AI rollout conversation. The Amplifiers are energized. Then a Stabilizer voices concerns.
This is where a Both/And response might try to smooth it over: 'Let's honor both sides.' But honoring both sides isn't enough.
Leading through the tension might sound like this:
'I'm hearing two things that matter. One is the momentum we don't want to lose. The other is a risk we can't afford to overlook. We're being pulled between two important truths. So before we move forward, let's break it down.'
'Let's articulate what edge we're chasing. What's the gain, by when? 'But let's not stop there —what assumptions are we making? Where's the data risk?'
'Let's time-box this. What's a pilot that gives us real motion, but still tests the foundation?'
'We're not resolving the tension—we're engaging with it. We'll reconvene next week with a scoped plan that reflects both ambition and caution.'
That's not conceptual Both/And. That's leadership in polarity. Not smoothing, not splitting—but stretching. And it's the kind of leadership our world demands now.
The future will not be led by those who explain complexity away. It will be shaped by those who can feel it fully and still lead forward.
Don't just balance the tension. Learn from it.
Frayed rope about to break concept for stress, problem, fragility or precarious business situation
Decision-Making: Stabilizers want to pause. Amplifiers want to leap. Neither is wrong.
Try this:
Information Flow: Stabilizers protect accuracy. Amplifiers circulate ideas early to test energy.
Try this:
Coaching and Development: Stabilizers need certainty before they stretch. Amplifiers need stretch before they commit.
Try this:
Execution: Stabilizers want detailed plans. Amplifiers crave long-term vision. They're both right. They're just tuned to different frequencies.
Try this:
Change doesn't fail because people speak up. It fails when they stop trying.
Friction isn't dysfunction. It's fuel. What looks like harmony is often disengagement. When people don't feel safe to disagree, they opt out. You don't have to eliminate the tension. You have to lead through it.
If you feel pulled apart, that doesn't mean you're lost. It means you're in the middle of the work.
Sometimes the Amplifiers will move first. Other times, the Stabilizers will steady the ground. That's not a failure to decide. That's wisdom in motion. The goal isn't to pick a side. The goal is to stay in the game.
Tug of war isn't about dragging one side across the line. It's about noticing the tension, where it pulls, where it holds, and using that awareness to shape the path forward.
You don't lead change by ending the tension. You lead by holding it well. Not by pulling harder, but by holding smarter.
So hold the rope. Feel the strain. Let both sides speak. And ask yourself: What polarities are you holding right now, and how might you hold them better?