## Session VII: Leadership

> [“Control doesn’t scale; trust does.”](https://open-and-async.com/q/control-trust/)

### Discuss

- Who here leads through influence rather than a title — and do we actually recognize it as leadership, or only reward the org chart?
- Which of our “decisions” are really just vibes from a meeting nobody can cite — findable at a URL, or gone with whoever was in the room?
- Where does dissent go when someone on our team disagrees — into the open, or into DMs and side channels?

### Split the room

**For managers:** Look at your last month of 1:1s. Were they status updates that belong in an issue, or the coaching and hard conversations only real-time can carry?

**For individual contributors:** Leadership isn’t the org chart. Where could you make a decision legible, take a DRI role, or document the “why” so the whole team moves faster?

### Debate

“Some things a leader just needs to handle in the room.” Argue it. Then argue why charm doesn’t commit to the repo — and what’s lost when leadership is a performance.

### Try it

Skip one week of a status meeting you run or sit in. Post a written update instead — what shipped, what’s blocked, what’s next — then ask the room what, if anything, they missed. Optional: run `score_status_update` from the [companion tools](https://open-and-async.com/#mcp).

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From the [*Open & Async* book club guide](https://open-and-async.com/book-club-guide/#leadership).