Great leaders don’t just steer the ship—they shape the current. One of the most underrated but powerful responsibilities of leadership is helping an organization be in favor of what is going to happen. This is not about prediction, persuasion, or control. It’s about cultivating the conditions—through clarity, context, and trust—that make teams ready, willing, and even eager to lean into what’s next. Whether it’s a strategic shift, a cultural evolution, or an uncomfortable truth finally surfacing, the best leaders help their people align emotionally and intellectually with what’s inevitable or necessary. 

My brother (Will Price) and I share a fascination with inspiring examples of leadership - we’ve turned this interest into a podcast called Inspired By Example, conversations with remarkable people (4-star admirals, CEOs, university presidents, religious leaders…) who have done remarkable things. Despite the differences in where they’ve led, there are trends that emerge that connect them all - among them is this: They don’t force alignment—they foster it.

What It Means to Be "In Favor"

Helping your organization be “ in favor” of what’s coming doesn’t mean encouraging passive acceptance—it means inviting informed willingness. A posture of readiness, not resistance. A belief that what’s coming connects to shared values, and that there’s room in it for everyone.

Here are three examples from across the episodes, followed by two examples in history in which leaders found ways to foster belief in what was coming.

Tony James (Former COO, Blackstone) – Culture of Clarity and Risk-Taking

When we spoke to Tony James, the former President and COO of Blackstone, one of the world’s largest investment firms, he talked about cultural stewardship and the need to empower teams through trust and transparency. In our conversation with him, he spoke extensively about the need to eliminate fear from risk and idea-sharing. At Blackstone, he intentionally created an environment where people could challenge senior leaders without risk to their careers. That safety built not just a stronger culture—but prepared the organization to favor the constant reinvention required to stay on top.

“If you want people to try new things, they can’t be punished when it doesn’t work. I owned the failure because I built the system. That gave them the freedom to act”.

Insight: He helped the team be in favor of innovation by removing fear—long before any bold move hit the table.

Provocation: What if your team's resistance to innovation isn’t about the idea—but about the fear you haven’t named yet?

Waded Cruzado (President, Montana State University) – Drawing People Into the Future

In another episode, we spoke to Waded Cruzado, the President of Montana State University and a nationally recognized advocate for access, equity, and student success in higher education - she also served in the Obama administration as a member of the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD), a seven-member advisory council to USAID. President Cruzado described great leadership as the ability to draw out the talents of others and to create a safe space to ask “why?” and challenge assumptions. She shared the story of discovering, early in her tenure at Montana State, that no one had paused to ask a long-serving lab assistant or office staffer what could be done better—until she did. And when she did, the ideas flowed.

“You will be surprised… they know what things could work better. But no one had taken the time to ask.”

Insight: Waded created an atmosphere where people didn’t just go along with change—they shaped it. She helped the organization be in favor of rethinking how things were done.

Provocation: Who do you need to bring in sooner, listen to more deeply, or trust to carry the message with you?

Steve Burke (Former CEO, NBCUniversal) – Truth-Telling and Reframing Success

One of our favorite episodes is our conversation with Steve Burke, former CEO of NBCUniversal, where he led major expansions in media, theme parks, and digital strategy. Steve is known for driving operational turnarounds and for his candid, metrics-driven leadership style. When Steve took over as CEO of NBCUniversal in 2011, he walked into a business that was struggling—but not everyone internally saw it that way. The company had legacy pride, but it was underperforming in nearly every category. Burke knew that before any strategic changes could be effective, the organization had to align around a shared understanding of reality.

So he opened his first all-hands meeting with data: a presentation showing how NBC ranked in the third or fourth quartile across virtually every business line—network ratings, cable channels, digital, and beyond.

Then, he delivered a disarming challenge:

“Raise your hand if you were in the third or fourth quartile in college. I don’t think many of you were.”

That moment struck a chord. It wasn’t shaming—it was a call to excellence that acknowledged the intelligence and pride of the people in the room. Steve was inviting them to recognize that they were capable of much better. He didn’t spin the data or soften the message. He gave the team credit for being smart enough to handle the truth. He reframed the challenge as shared, surmountable, and tied to collective identity. He helped the team be in favor of improvement—by leading with clarity, respect, and belief in their potential.

Insight: Steve didn’t just announce the future—he made people want to reach for it.

Provocation: Are you declaring the future—or making people want to reach for it? The difference is whether they see it as a task or a shared climb.

Here are two examples from two of my favorite leaders, FDR and Mandela.

FDR: Preparing the Public to Want Change

When Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1933, the United States was in the grip of the Great Depression. Banks were failing, unemployment was soaring, and public trust in institutions had crumbled. (sound familiar?)  FDR didn’t simply roll out the sweeping economic reforms of the New Deal—he first laid the emotional and psychological groundwork to ensure that the American people would want and support the changes to come.

One of his most powerful tools was the “Fireside Chat”—a series of informal radio broadcasts where he spoke directly to millions of Americans in plain, accessible language. These weren’t lofty policy speeches. They were conversational, often deeply human explanations of what was happening, why it mattered, and how ordinary people were part of the solution.

When announcing the Emergency Banking Act, for example, Roosevelt calmly explained how banks worked, why the system had collapsed, and why it was safe—and essential—for people to begin trusting their banks again.

More than any single policy, FDR’s tone and method created emotional readiness. He didn’t present reform as something being done to the people, but as something they were doing together—a shared act of recovery and reinvention. He helped the country be in favor of large-scale, unprecedented government intervention—not through persuasion alone, but by giving people context, calm, and a sense of agency.

Insight: FDR didn’t wait for consensus—he created it through plain-speaking, trust-building moments of authenticity that helped people emotionally align with necessary change. He made Americans feel like co-owners of the future, not just passive recipients of reform.

Provocation: Are you waiting for alignment—or helping to create it?

Nelson Mandela: Framing Forgiveness as Strength

When Mandela was released in 1990 after 27 years in prison, he emerged not with vengeance, but with a vision of reconciliation. South Africa had been deeply divided by decades of apartheid, the brutal, state-enforced system of racial segregation and oppression. Mandela’s release marked the symbolic end of that era, but the country was still teetering on the edge of civil conflict. Fear, mistrust, and anger ran deep across both Black and white communities.

What made Mandela’s leadership extraordinary was not just his moral clarity—it was his ability to help the nation be in favor of a peaceful, shared future that many feared or doubted. He didn’t demand forgiveness. He modeled it. He didn’t suppress pain. He acknowledged it—and chose to move forward anyway. He famously invited his former jailer to his presidential inauguration. 

Mandela knew that to build a new South Africa, people had to want the new reality—not just accept it. He reframed reconciliation not as weakness, but as strength. Not as forgetting, but as a radical act of unity.

Insight: Mandela didn’t just set a political direction—he set an emotional tone. He made space for grief and fear, while lifting up a narrative strong enough for people to believe in something bigger than retaliation: a country that belonged to everyone.

Provocation: Are you modeling the posture you want to see define your organization?

Leadership isn’t just about directing outcomes—it’s about shaping how people feel about them before they arrive. This insight has helped guide the development of Alignd — our strategy-to-action platform. Whether you’re leading a pivot, scaling complexity, or driving cultural change, Alignd helps leaders do what the best leaders in history have always done:

Create clarity, foster belief, and help their teams be in favor of what’s coming.