Ashish KothariMake flourishing your competitive edge

The Power of Positive Intent: Shifting from Control to Support

16 May 2026 · 1 min

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In this interview excerpt, Ashish Kothari recounts a pivotal moment early in his career as a young engagement manager at McKinsey. He describes how he initially felt compelled to control every aspect of his work to ensure delivery, but later shifted to a mindset of assuming positive intent in his team members. By focusing on what his colleagues needed to succeed and establishing a shared objective, he observed a dramatic transformation in team dynamics and outcomes. The conversation highlights the contrast between a control‑centric approach and a supportive, intent‑based leadership style, emphasizing how shared goals can unlock collective performance.

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So that was one of the big pivots for me, Colleen, as a young engagement manager at McKinsey, where my initial contract, oh my God, I gotta like control everything because I'm the one who has to be delivering all this. The moment I shifted towards really getting to think about, let's assume positive intent, everybody on my team is trying to do the best that they can. Instead of like, if I can focus on what do they need the most to get to where we wanna go, Once we had a shared objective where we were going, everything changed, right? Everything changed. Absolutely, yes.