Humans Don’t Fail. Designs Fail: A New Model for Sustainable Leadership

Written By Andrea Gharritt
 

Let’s start here: you’re not behind, you’re not broken, and there’s nothing wrong with your ambition.
The only thing “wrong” is the outdated leadership design you were handed.

And now?
You’re smart enough — and rebellious enough — to redesign it.

Why the Old Models of Leadership Are Failing Us

Most leadership models were built for a world that doesn’t exist anymore.
They were built for:

  • Linear thinkers

  • Low-feeling leaders

  • Unlimited time and no caregiving responsibilities

  • Environments where the highest value was output, not humanity

  • People whose nervous systems weren’t being pinged 24/7

And they were definitely not built for women, creatives, sensitives, neurodivergent leaders, or anyone with a pulse and a conscience.

The old model said:

  • Grind harder.

  • Numb your intuition.

  • Don’t feel anything.

  • Hide your weird.

  • Be small.

  • Perform professionalism instead of being human.

AND WE DID IT.
We squeezed and disguised and shape-shifted until the cost was too damn high.

Now the world is burning out — and quietly hoping someone braver shows up with a better way.

Spoiler: that someone is you.

So… Who Are the SoftRebels?

SoftRebels are the leaders this moment is begging for.

We’re the ones who:

  • Feel deeply

  • See around corners

  • Read rooms like novels

  • Innovate sideways

  • Break molds without trying

  • Care about impact as much as income

  • Refuse to bulldoze our humanity for “success”

We are empaths, creatives, HSPs, ADHDers, multi-passionates, mission-driven disruptors — the exact leaders who thrive in complexity, hold nuance, and design with compassion and courage.
We’re the ones who look at broken systems and think, “This could be better. Let’s fix it.”

Old leadership models weren’t built for us.
But the next era of leadership?
It doesn’t work without us.

Because the future needs:

  • Nervous-system-literate leaders

  • Emotionally intelligent truth-tellers

  • Visionaries who can sense the thing before it exists

  • Leaders who choose joy, connection, and sustainability as strategy

  • Humans who can hold both/and without combusting

  • Courage that’s regulated, not reckless

SoftRebels aren’t “too sensitive.”
We’re too necessary to keep shrinking.

Sustainable Leadership: Built For Humans, Not Machines

Here’s what sustainable leadership ACTUALLY looks like — not the LinkedIn-approved version, the real version:

1. A regulated nervous system

Not “zen monk on a mountaintop calm.”
More like: I can feel the wobble and still hold my center.

THIS is your real executive presence.

2. Joy as a renewable resource, not a reward

Joy is strategy.
Joy is creative fuel.
Joy is what your best ideas run on.

If burnout is depletion, joy is the power grid.

3. Authentic visibility

Visibility isn’t about volume.
Visibility is about resonance.

It’s being your real self, consistently.

It’s about letting your Zone of Genius be known and taking charge of what you’re known for.
Even when your voice shakes.
Even when your stomach flips.

4. Systems designed for your brain

Whether you're ADHD, HSP, wildly creative, deeply empathic, multi-passionate, neurospicy…

Design for that brain.
Design for your wiring.
Design for the way your genius actually fires, flows, and focuses.

Because when your systems match your mind?
Consistency becomes possible, momentum becomes natural, and your brilliance becomes undeniable.

5. A relationship with your body that fuels your leadership

Your body is not a liability.
It’s the vessel that carries your courage, clarity, and presence.

For the Neurons in the Back:

You’re not failing. The DESIGN is failing you. (READ: It’s failing all of us.)

Once you stop trying to squeeze yourself into expired leadership models, everything shifts.

  • The VP who didn’t need a new title — she needed more joy, more margin, more breath.

  • The founder who stopped performing leadership and started enjoying success.

  • The deeply-feeling leader who rebuilt their leadership around strength, not sacrifice.

These humans aren’t “lucky.”
They redesigned.
They regulated.
They reclaimed their power.

Sustainable leadership isn’t about grinding harder.
It’s about designing smarter.

Try This: Three Actionable Redesigns You Can Make Today

1. Add 10% more margin to your week

Not for productivity — for oxygen.

Margin = strategic advantage.
Cancel, delegate, shorten, simplify.

2. Track KJIs, not just KPIs

Key Joy Indicators.
(I said what I said.)
Ask yourself:

  • What made me feel alive this week?

  • What grounded me?

  • What energized me instead of draining me?

    Joy is data.

    Joy is direction.

3. Name what your nervous system needs before you lead

Before the big moment:

  • 4 slow breaths

  • Feet on the floor

  • One truth: “I can do this scared.”

These micro-shifts compound.
Your design shifts.
Your leadership expands.
And suddenly, you’re not fighting yourself — you’re fortified.

A SoftRebel Rally Cry

If you’re reading this thinking, Holy shit, this is exactly what I’ve been bumping up against, you’re not alone and you don’t have to keep contorting yourself into someone else’s version of leadership.

This is the work we do inside The SoftRebel LeadersMethod™ – not to “fix” you, but to design leadership around your nervous system, your genius, your joy, and your actual wiring.

No more white-knuckling.
No more burnout-as-a-badge-honor.
No more dimming your brilliance because the old systems couldn’t hold it.

If you’re craving leadership that finally feels like yours, not a mold you inherited, reach out. Time to redesign.

Andrea Gharritt https://www.thebld.com
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