29/10/2025
I was sitting in a leadership session yesterday.
The speaker put up a slide that stopped me cold.
"What's your organizational culture?"
She then shared a simple matrix with four quadrants:
1. Command and Control → You make every decision, your team waits for approval, high stress for you, low autonomy for them
2. Chaotic Culture → No systems, constant firefighting, everyone confused about priorities, survival mode every day
3. Happy Accident → Great people, good vibes, but no structure to scale, growth happens randomly not strategically
4. Intentional Culture → Clear systems, empowered teams, healthy environment, sustainable growth without you being the bottleneck
And I realized: Most leaders in microfinance I know are stuck in Command and Control.
High intentionality. Low healthiness.
They're running everything. Making every decision. Approving every loan.
Their teams? Waiting for instructions.
The impact?
→ Chaos when you're not there
→ Control that suffocates growth
→ Fatigue that burns you out
I've seen it everywhere.
Branch managers who can't make decisions without calling head office.
Loan officers who won't handle difficult clients without backup.
Teams that freeze the moment leadership isn't in the room.
But here's what that session reminded me:
Thriving doesn't just happen.
It requires:
→ Intentionality – Designing culture, not hoping for it
→ Self-awareness – Knowing where you're the problem
→ Personal responsibility – Teams that own outcomes
→ The right team – People who can lead without you
→ The right tools – Systems that work when you're not there
The question that's been haunting me since:
Where does MY organization fall on that matrix?
Am I building Command and Control – where everything runs through me?
Or am I building Intentional Culture – where my team thrives whether I'm there or not?
Because here's the truth:
You can't scale your organization if you're the bottleneck.
So I'm asking you the same question:
If you disappeared for a month tomorrow, would your organization thrive or freeze?
Are you building leaders or building dependency?
What's ONE thing you need to let go of to move from control to culture?
Drop your honest answer below. 👇