The most productive meeting you'll have today might be the one where you say almost nothing. Simone Weil — French philosopher and mystic, writing in the 1940s — argued that attention is a form of love, and that genuine attention requires a near-total evacuation of the self. Not strategic silence, not active listening as a technique, but a radical willingness to let what is actually true about the other person land in you, undistorted by your own agenda. She called this 'waiting on' another person — the way a waiter holds themselves ready rather than projecting what the guest wants. What's striking is that Weil was not writing about management or family dynamics. She was writing about prayer and learning. But the mechanism she describes maps precisely onto what actually goes wrong when capable, driven people try to lead or parent: the more competent you become, the more your mind pre-fills the space before someone finishes speaking. You already have the answer. You're already composing. The other person senses this — and either conforms or withdraws. Today, try one conversation where your only job is to let the other person's reality become more vivid to you than your own response.

In your last significant conversation with someone you lead or love, who were you actually thinking about most of the time?

Drawing from French Existentialist-Mystical Philosophy — Simone Weil (Waiting for God / Attente de Dieu, 1951; and 'Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies', 1942)