Freedom

THE TENSION

Freedom. The word might sound out of place in a leadership conversation. But freedom, in the Being Framework, is about the degree to which you experience genuine options in how you lead - whether you feel able to make choices, take positions, and lead from your own judgement, or whether you experience yourself as constrained, obligated, and without real room to move.

“The leader who feels trapped will eventually create a team that feels the same way.”

THE SCENARIO

Bjørn Larsson has been Humanitarian Mapping Team Lead at Oxfam Australia for twelve months. He manages geospatial support for international humanitarian programs - displacement mapping, needs assessment, field logistics - in contexts where the data his team produces directly shapes where resources go and who receives support.

Bjørn believes strongly in the mission. He also believes, increasingly, that his team is not being given the latitude to do their best work. Reporting requirements have expanded. Approval chains for standard analytical decisions have lengthened. A recent internal restructure introduced a layer of coordination that Bjørn experiences as interference rather than support.

His response, gradually and without a clear decision point, has been to tighten his own grip on the team’s outputs. He reviews every product before it goes anywhere. He has started requiring his team members to clear analytical approaches with him before proceeding. He attends meetings his team members could and should be running.

His most experienced data analyst, Yemi, raised it directly last week: “You’re checking everything we do. Do you not trust us?”

Bjørn said he did. But the behaviour says otherwise.

What has happened is not a loss of trust in the team. It is a loss of freedom in Bjørn - a sense of constraint from above that he is unconsciously transmitting downward through tighter control.

WHAT’S DRIVING IT

Freedom is living from the viewpoint that you always have options. It is the capacity to choose how to be, act, and lead without being controlled or constrained by external forces in a way that overwhelms your own judgement. When freedom is absent, the experience is of being trapped - and that experience seeks expression somewhere, often in the direction of those with less power.

Bjørn’s frustration with the organisational constraints is real and legitimate. The problem is that he has not named it as a freedom issue, examined his options, or chosen a response. Instead, the constraint has flowed through him and landed on his team in the form of micromanagement - a response that solves nothing and costs considerably.

A leader who recognises that they feel constrained has options: to negotiate the constraints, to accept them and adapt, or to escalate the concern. All of those are genuine choices. What is not a genuine choice is transmitting the constraint downward without awareness.

A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH FREEDOM

A healthy relationship with freedom means you see options and possibilities available to you and can create opportunities when the need arises. You are not at the mercy of distorting forces - you choose not to be restrained by situations imposed on you, and you communicate openly without constraint. You may actively consider self-imposed disciplines to prioritise what you most care about.

In practice, this looks like Bjørn examining the approval chain clearly, naming what he finds constraining, and making a conscious choice about how to respond - including a conversation with his manager about where the constraints are genuinely impeding the mission. And then returning to his team with the latitude they need, because he has found his own freedom again rather than managing its absence.

REFLECTION PROMPTS

- Where in your leadership do you feel genuinely constrained - by policy, structure, or organisational dynamics - and what have you done with that feeling?

- Is there a way in which a constraint you are experiencing from above is being transmitted, perhaps unconsciously, to the people below you?

- What options do you actually have in the situation you experience as having no options - and which ones have you not yet tried?

- What would your team’s experience of their work be if you led from a sense of genuine freedom rather than managed constraint?

If you recognise the feeling of being constrained - and the way it might be shaping how you lead - The Being Profile explores how freedom operates in your leadership and where its absence is costing your team the space to do their best work.

Get in touch at hello@mappingbeing.com.au

While the organisations referenced exist, the team lead, other people and the team name have been used for demonstration purposes only. Any resemblance to real-life people, teams, organisations or situations is purely coincidental.

Reference: Tashvir, A. (2021). BEING (p. 295). Engenesis Publications.

[Published: 14 September 2026]