Chapter One: The Opportunity to Lead Bigger CHAPTER ONE THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEAD BIGGER
One of the mementos from my career I’m proudest of is an old yellow mug with an expletive on it, gifted to me by a team who taught me a new way to lead. I rediscovered it as I was cleaning out my office after a thirty-plus-year corporate career at AT&T. The mug reminded me of an early but important experience that convinced me not to head down the well-worn, often micromanaged or uninspired path of other leaders. I wanted instead to curate an approach with a wider, more human perspective, something I’ve since come to call leading bigger.

Back in the day, if you wanted to climb the ladder at AT&T, you needed to prove yourself by leading a large team. My post was to manage a customer service organization of several hundred people across the United States who were responsible for the clients purchasing our 1-800 toll-free-number services.

Until that point, I’d managed only a couple of staff members located in the same office. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. What did a twenty-something know about supporting customers seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, as the head of a demanding, diverse team whose members were twice my age and far more experienced?

I thankfully understood that, to start, I needed to listen to the people I was now responsible for. I met with many service representatives and technicians across locations, who didn’t hesitate to provide their unvarnished feedback: You’re just a young whippersnapper. (They really called me that, even though this was the 1990s, not the 1890s.) And You’re only here to get your large-team experience. Then you’ll leave. And District managers like you come and go. We do the work, and managers haven’t helped us improve anything at all.

I expected straight talk, but I got more than I anticipated. Not that I could blame them. They expected a self-centered style of leader who came in and focused solely on the task at hand—prioritizing short-term results, treating them as expendable, and enforcing a rigid approach to the workplace that dampened human ingenuity.

In that moment, I could have wielded my formal authority. I was, after all, their boss. I could’ve pushed my team to hit our targets just long enough to be able to achieve my next career goal and move on. Others before me had done exactly that, leaving a skeptical workforce in their wake. But in my gut, I knew this wasn’t how I wanted to lead. Even if relying on this authority structure was standard corporate behavior, it wasn’t what my team needed or deserved.

After all, I was a daughter of immigrants raised to get along, fit in, and work hard to be respected, so this managerial approach, though common, was anathema to me. And as a second-generation Asian American—and often the first or only in any given environment—I struggled to belong. So I was acutely aware of the real challenges in fostering connection and community in my professional roles. Rather than pulling rank, I was inclined to do the opposite, because using hierarchy to drive behavior always felt small to me.

Instead, in what became a career-defining moment, I decided my top priority was to lead bigger. I wanted to win the respect of the team; I wanted us to collaborate. And I hoped that we could make enduring improvements together in ways that would be helpful to the larger company. I didn’t want to selfishly check a box and move to my next assignment.

I did not have any sophisticated management model, but I did sense that to get to these bigger outcomes, I had to broaden my view to focus on the work, the people (the workforce), and the environment we were working in (the workplace). I knew gaining insights from others both inside and outside of my organization would be helpful, both to me as the leader and to my team. In my view, leading bigger was all about widening my perspectives by engaging with more people and taking in more information to elevate our performance and impact, helping my team deliver on a greater potential.

It also meant being a bigger person—caring about people and bringing a generous nature to work.

This is in contrast to small leadership, which I view as taking a narrow, one-dimensional, often short-term focus on a singular stakeholder or set of measures—usually financial. This approach is typically self-serving and less collaborative.

Little did I know that my predisposition to lead bigger was really about inclusive leadership, but at the time I was still formulating this principle. I knew I wanted to spark connection and inspiration in the work, and with the people in and around it. This included not just the employees but also our customers and the communities in which we operated—the groups that today I’d call stakeholders. I believed there was a way to compel all these people to meaningfully contribute, and for some, to band together in our human desire to belong. I wanted my team to know that I saw and respected them as human beings, so they in turn could bring their whole selves to work, perform their best, and realize their fullest potential. I wanted a workplace culture that cultivated innovation through strong trust and camaraderie, not one organized to bolster my own sense of ego or control.

I initially took the job thinking I was going to manage the customer service team, but I suddenly found myself in charge of addressing all the problems coming our way not only from the customers themselves but also from the rest of the organization. I first came to this realization in the confines of a stuffy windowless conference room, gathered around my new leadership team for the first time. They had clearly prepared for this gathering, and the most tenured manager of the bunch, a salty gentleman more than thirty years my senior, with his entire career spent in the same work center, had been nominated as spokesperson. He proceeded to lecture me, itemizing several points: “Our people are so dedicated, it’s amazing they can get the job done without any support from headquarters. We’re in this alone; no one else is working 24-7 on the phones taking customer calls. So many groups take advantage of us, and there aren’t any consequences for how crappy they treat us.” It didn’t take long for the ten other people in the room to energetically pile on with their own examples and emotions. I might’ve been the boss, but I was clearly also the student.

So I went to school. One of the biggest barriers to delivering a consistent satisfactory customer experience was the sales teams. Every day my team took calls from salespeople who made urgent requests ranging from “My customer needs this service to be turned on this week. I know I haven’t given you the order yet, but I need you to get it done. Otherwise we’ll lose the business” to “Why isn’t my customer’s service back up yet? What’s taking you so long?” to “What do you mean that can’t get done? I already told the customer we can do it.” In all cases, large fissures between the sales and service teams rose to the surface. It was as if they thought we didn’t care about the customer, and they didn’t behave like we were part of the same company. These haphazard behaviors caused major pain for my team and hurt their ability to do their work well.

I had to champion their needs on behalf of the business. I wasn’t just responsible for getting the job done, I was responsible for the people doing the job. It didn’t take long to gather the data from my team; they knew which sales organizations were chronic offenders. I understood that I had to go beyond my own group to improve the impact we were having on our customers and on the growth of our business. Imagine me, mid-twenties, standing at five-foot-three (ish), challenging the most difficult sales leader because I figured that if I could get him on the same page, the other conversations would go more smoothly. This guy stood a foot taller than me and had of course many more years in the company, and I dreaded confronting him. But I strolled into his office with conviction. As I brought the issues up, he denied any culpability: “Anne, that’s just the way it works around here. We can’t control what our customers want.” We went back and forth several times. “Anne, come on. Do you really think my team is trying to make things worse?” As I calmly gave him example after example of poor partnership, lack of communication, and the harm it was wreaking on our customers, he sheepishly admitted, “Okay, maybe you have a point. Customers could benefit from a better handoff. Let’s try it.” In retrospect, I was trying to get him to lead bigger with me. Ultimately we delivered better results as we began to share accountability for the customer experience and gained more trust in each other. Together, we created an environment where sales and service worked hand in hand. As this sales leader and I improved our collaboration, our teams followed suit. Interestingly, this sales/customer service model is now used across many industries to ensure customer-centric growth.

I championed my group’s needs, removing other structural barriers while also advocating for them and working with them to unlock their—and my—potential. This meant that I had to lead bigger beyond my job description—managing the customer service team—and focus strategically on the work, the workforce, and the workplace. It was clear to me that while our duties (work) were why we were there, we wouldn’t be able to do our best if I, as the leader, didn’t prioritize my people’s issues and needs (workforce) while ensuring that their environment was designed to enable them to succeed (workplace).

Shortly after I started, several technicians bet me that I wouldn’t last six months. I wound up serving in that leadership role for three years. During this time, we came together as a team, learning from our mistakes and celebrating our successes. We bonded not just as professionals but as people, who faced mental health challenges, security threats, and family milestones together.

This brings me back to my treasured coffee cup. When I eventually moved from that assignment, I had a series of closure sessions with my employees, thanking them for their dedication, contributions, and willingness to teach me while reinforcing the importance of their roles to our customers and in the growth of our business. To my surprise, one of the technicians presented me with a yellow mug that read: “Boys I’m Taking Charge Here” (spelled out vertically, with emphasis on the first letter of each word). I was truly touched and found it hilarious. At the time, the legal team was particularly sensitive about the acronym and asked me not to broadcast this story. But to me, this gift was the ultimate affirmation of the trust we had built over the years, to the point that we knew one another well enough to joke around while showing respect and working well together. And if you’ve ever been in customer service, a joke and a few choice words are sometimes all you’ve got.

After that assignment, I served in another dozen leadership roles at AT&T Business until I eventually took the helm as the CEO in 2019. That leadership experience in customer service spurred much of the subsequent success I had, inspiring me to further develop and practice this new way of leading.
Leading Bigger: A More Strategic, Accurate View of Inclusive Leadership
When I first encountered the term inclusive leadership, sometime in the 2000s, it seemed like the perfect way to describe my philosophy: I wanted to connect all my stakeholders to the meaning and impact of our work. I sought to achieve high performance, delivering shareholder value while embracing the workforce as people first, respecting the fact that they played out their roles in the broader context of their lives and identities. Inclusive leadership is at the heart of what I call leading bigger; in fact, I often consider the two terms synonymous. How can any organization perform to its fullest if it leaves some constituents outside of a circle of belonging?

And yet, as inclusion became a priority for business, it has somehow been buried deep in the HR department, somewhere where no one would ever think to look: at the very end of the DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) acronym.

Ironically, inclusion itself has been made too small. In the business world, the use of the word has been focused primarily on workforce representation, with a heavy emphasis on gender, race, and physical disability. While this is important, it’s certainly not complete. We need to redefine—or perhaps more accurately define—the term.



Inclusion, as I define it, is not just about people. It can also relate to the work itself, through, for instance, taking in larger datasets and more viewpoints for better decision-making. And it can encompass the workplace, more agilely addressing where, when, and how we work to support the needs of the business and its people in any given moment.

Leading bigger is where it all comes together, where the care for this “big tent” of people and the values-and-purpose-based assessment of inputs are translated into action. Leading bigger has to be driven by a compelling purpose and values, which are not platitudes, but rather lived. The goals are better decisions, improved performance, and ultimately a greater impact. Impact means you have the power to make real and enduring change for the better.

This is what I mean by leading bigger: widening your perspective to have greater performance and impact. How you achieve that is by advancing work that matters; developing a vital, innovative workforce; and creating a trusted, agile workplace.

1. Work That Matters: Bigger leaders ensure that their purpose, values, and performance metrics involve and engage the people directly affected by and interested in the work of their team/organization.
2. A Vital, Innovative Workforce: Bigger leaders recognize the humanity of their people, taking responsibility for how the work impacts their teams’ well-being while embracing all dimensions of their identity. The leader’s role has inevitably expanded to understanding what is happening in the employee’s career and life—potentially at any and all times. When it comes to your people, leading bigger doesn’t start and stop with the workday.
3. Your Trusted, Agile Workplace: Considering the future of work requires that we create a safe environment. We must stop thinking of the traditional rigid boundaries of work, such as hierarchy, location, and time. Bigger leaders champion flexibility in dynamic hybrid workplaces by embracing trust and empowerment for individuals, teams, and leaders alike.

For decades we’ve been urged to think bigger, yet no one has articulated how to lead bigger. Thinking bigger means envisioning new, undreamed-of possibilities that yield progressive breakthroughs; leading bigger is how you get this done. You can’t think your way into market-winning growth; execution is required. High performance, innovation, and creative solutions require you to have teams who are energized and to earn the support and even friendship of the important groups that surround your company, including your customers and the communities in which you work.

In order to successfully engage with so many, the bigger leader needs to unearth and articulate a common purpose and needs to develop a new interpersonal tool kit: empathy, caring, and listening, to name just a few elements.

The upsides of this approach are indeed bigger. According to the Harvard Business Review—where inclusive leadership is discussed in this broader manner as embodying the traits of humility, curiosity, and active learning, rather than a more narrow DEI-based version of the term—inclusive organizations are 73 percent more likely to reap innovation revenue (i.e., sales from new products and services), 70 percent more likely to capture new markets, up to 50 percent more likely to make better decisions, and up to 36 percent more likely to have above-average profitability. And inclusive leaders create a 17 percent increase in team performance, a 29 percent increase in team collaboration, and a 76 percent decreased risk of attrition (i.e., employees leaving).

True inclusion doesn’t mean adding more to leaders’ plates; they’re already facing burnout and exhaustion as great as anyone else’s in the workforce. But leading bigger isn’t yet another task or something else that one needs to do. Instead, it’s a refreshing and revitalized way to approach work, the workforce, and the workplace that will not only drive success but keep leaders and their teams engaged and inspired. Leading bigger will invigorate more people with greater degrees of cohesion and connectedness. And if we want to transform and accelerate growth, it’s time to lead bigger.
Evidence of Leading Bigger
This type of leadership, which aligns people to purpose and seeks to create success beyond just the bottom line, has been evolving all around us. In retrospect, we are witnessing a seminal shift toward bigger leadership.

Trillions in investment dollars have moved into conscious investments, which focus on improving the world. This includes corporate social responsibility (CSR), concern about the impact of climate change, and an eye toward how companies are run. A movement familiar to many, labeled environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs, is going through growing pains, as the label has too often been misapplied for the purpose of marketing investment vehicles that do not deliver on the promise. Nonetheless, investor interest in backing companies that contribute positively beyond their financial results is growing.

Consider the rise of the B Corp, a for-profit company certification program that seeks to create a better kind of capitalism. One shining example of a B Corp is Patagonia, which goes from strength to strength in its effort to do nothing less than “save our home planet.” Patagonia has put in place repair and reuse programs, and seeks to produce non-trendy products meant to last, in a rejection of fast fashion. It transparently publishes data on worker pay, microplastics, and other aspects of its supply chain. Its 2025 goal is to make at least half of its synthetic materials using secondary waste streams, including ocean plastic waste, bottle collection programs, and textile waste. In what I see as an effort to lead bigger, it has a stated goal to strengthen these secondary waste supply chains to enable their use by the clothing industry at large.

For more evidence that there is a will to lead bigger, reflect on how the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading major American companies, decided in 2019 to adopt a new statement of purpose for corporations, declaring that “companies should serve not only their shareholders [i.e., investors], but also deliver value to their customers, invest in employees, deal fairly with suppliers, and support the communities in which they operate.”

Bigger leaders have been consistently elevating the business performance of their organizations while also delivering greater strategic impact for their stakeholders over the long term. I contend that, increasingly, companies do well financially when they align with stakeholders and deliver beneficial outcomes for more than just investors. This is because our world is ever more interconnected via social media and public access to data, so company behaviors are more visible than ever. Operate in ways harmful to an important community or to employee well-being, and you will set yourself up for friction and backlash that will harm your bottom line.

Yet another sign of the move toward bigger leadership is the value we’re now placing on leadership behaviors like advocacy, self-awareness, servant leadership, stakeholder excellence, a philanthropic focus, vulnerability, fairness, long-term thinking, humility, and humor (often self-deprecating, or at least not typically made at the expense of others).

These types of leaders think big and deliver bigger. They are committed to delivering outstanding performance and sustainable growth while making an impact that will not only endure but remake society for the better. This is why their efforts are often seen as groundbreaking.

Consider the lead bigger characteristics demonstrated by these notable leaders:

Warren Buffett, chairperson of Berkshire Hathaway, is arguably the most successful investor of the twentieth century. His success is based on modeling an investment style that seeks to deliver value for the long term. As a bigger leader, he has also advanced philanthropy in groundbreaking ways, such as launching an initiative in which he, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg promised to give away at least half of their wealth, while encouraging others to do the same. He has generously stated time and time again that one of the reasons for his success is that he was competing against only half of the talent pool—a direct poke at the reality of gender inequity in the workplace. And he’s spoken against the unfairness of how, even though he’s one of the world’s richest humans, he pays lower taxes than his secretary does.

Few would argue with the assertion that Alan Mulally, former president and CEO of Ford, is a bigger leader. His turnaround of Ford during the Great Recession was anchored on his “work together” principles and practices that centered around people, communication, and a clear vision. A self-proclaimed servant leader, he believes that it is an honor to serve an organization, and his deep empathy and keen awareness are legendary for bringing out the best in those around him.

Indra Nooyi, former chair and CEO of PepsiCo, revitalized the strategic direction of the company, shifting toward healthy alternatives with an intense focus on changing consumer needs. As a bigger leader, she was consistently inclusive, considering diverse perspectives and fostering a culture of respect and understanding across her organization. She is also famous for writing thank-you notes to the parents of her executives, expressing appreciation for the contribution they make and to their parents’ role in raising them.

Ken Frazier, executive chairman and former CEO of Merck, is known for playing the long game, as demonstrated in his decisions to support research and development, even when it meant a short-term hit to earnings guidance. A civil rights attorney by training, he was the first CEO to step down from President Trump’s American Manufacturing Council in 2017 in light of the events and commentary around the racial violence in Charlottesville. Later, he recalled in an interview that when he subsequently arrived to speak at a manufacturing plant in North Carolina, most of the manufacturing workers had their arms crossed. He said, “I respect your views. I hope you will respect mine.” After he said that, he recalls that they uncrossed their arms.

Satya Nadella, chair and CEO of Microsoft, one of the most valuable companies in the world, embodies leading bigger. He speaks of empathy not as a “soft skill” but as a skill critical to innovation, since it enables the comprehension of customers’ unmet needs. He has a passion for ensuring the accessibility of workplaces and products for people with disabilities, inspired by his love for his son, who had cerebral palsy and was a quadriplegic who sadly passed away in 2022.

Julie Sweet, chair and CEO of Accenture, was the first woman to lead the global professional technology services company. At a time when responding to the Israel-Hamas war has ended careers, Sweet and her management team issued a masterfully balanced and empathetic statement, as well as committed funding for humanitarian efforts. Reflective of her lead-bigger mindset, she says, “The real driver of culture (outside of good leadership) is about how it feels to come into work every day.”

Simone Biles, one of the most decorated American gymnasts of all time, demonstrated her bigger leadership when, at the top of her game, she courageously prioritized her own mental health, pulling out of several events during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Her actions helped normalize the conversation about the importance of mental health. She has become a global role model and advocate, inspiring people across the world.

Bigger leadership has been sprouting up all around us, but these green shoots are often overshadowed by less enlightened myopic, performative, zero-sum thinking.
The Risks of Leading Small
Once you recognize the difference, you will note the disparity between small and bigger leadership everywhere you look: the business news, global politics, educational systems, and even in our local communities and neighborhoods.

Do you recognize any of these “leading small” behaviors? And more important, can you remember how these behaviors have made you feel? Did they affect your ability to do your job?

• Penny-wise, pound-foolish: Enforcing maddening budget cuts made without consideration to how they will choke long-term innovations and prospects of greater growth.
• Narrow lens: Myopically optimizing the performance of your own team, even when it is to the detriment of the organization.
• Micromanaging: Intervening to the point where your team stops learning or devising their own strategies, thus displaying a lack of trust and suppressing human ingenuity.
• Missing the big picture: Focusing on a single performance data point (often one that is incentivized), and thus missing the larger context of the problem you are trying to solve.
• Self-focused: Power-hungry, selfish, credit-stealing, and intimidating leaders who create toxic work environments that undercut growth rather than focusing on the team’s spirit and the bigger picture.
• Deflection: Leaders who inflict crushing pressure on their employees, taking no ownership of the impossible demands they are imposing, then tell their people to meditate to manage their wellness and bring their best selves to the job.

And how about these characteristics of bigger leaders? Can you recall someone who exemplified these characteristics? How did you feel working with, or for, them? Did they help bring out the best in you?

• Being a bigger person: Demonstrating vulnerability, admitting mistakes, looking to solve conflict through respect and understanding.
• Seeking a broader impact: Connecting with the wider circle of people who will feel the effects of the business. Bridge-building in an attempt to find mutual benefit.
• Scouring the horizon: Seeking more data points and viewpoints to fill in blind spots. Identifying opportunities and potential pitfalls to guide the team confidently forward, mitigating and managing risk, for sustainable outcomes. Steering the team masterfully around the rocks.
• Embracing the whole of your team: Seeing each individual as having value and potential, not just in the context of their work, but in the context of their life. Working with individuals according to their unique strengths, weaknesses, and aspirations.
• Inspirational: Fueling a team with a shared purpose supported by a culture of belonging and the psychologically safe environments in which people can develop new ideas and display excellence.
• Reflective: Demonstrating self-awareness and humility, recognizing the impacts of their dispositions and behaviors on the well-being of the team. Continually learning, improving, and growing. Also, thinking deeply and systemically about a problem, identifying root causes, and devising long-term solutions.

You are not either a bigger leader or a small leader—we all have attributes of both. Most important, we all have the potential to lead bigger. You don’t check a box and immediately become a bigger leader; it’s a continuous lifelong journey you consciously choose to partake in.

Look at both lists and consider your own behaviors to date in your career. When have you led small? When were you a bigger leader?
How to Read This Book
The purpose of this book is to introduce and advance the topic of bigger leadership by reframing inclusion as an essential leadership competency applied to the work, workforce, and workplace. Each of these pillars is covered in its own section, where you’ll discover strategies and practices inspired by real-world examples. To bring additional facets of inclusive leadership to life in order to widen our perspectives, I interviewed three leadership visionaries whose life’s purpose and practice embody excellence. In the last section of the book, I am honored to feature one-on-one conversations with General Stanley McChrystal, Arianna Huffington, and Adam Grant. Their guidance to leaders of today and tomorrow is both inspiring and invaluable.

Making a leadership move of this magnitude isn’t always easy. But leading bigger rewards both those who undertake this transformation and the people they reach. In a world of uncertainty, you’ll drive lasting results while contributing to significant outcomes, having a greater impact on those you care about while delivering strong levels of performance. In a world of labor shortages and talent wars, you’ll attract, engage, and retain outstanding team members who will not only contribute to your organization today but position you for success in the future. In a world of divisiveness, you’ll create vital bonds with everyone connected to your business—even those whose ideologies are different from yours. And in a world where the pace of change and innovation is guaranteed to accelerate, you’ll create a flexible culture along with an agile and responsive workplace—one that’s distinctive because it’s where the very best people, now and in the future, want to belong.