#66 Leading Beyond Fear: Beck Sydow on the Power of Holding Tension
Wed Dec 03 2025
Fear isn’t the enemy of leadership. Getting stuck in it is. And if you’re still leading from urgency, reactivity, or overcorrection, you’re already limiting your clarity.
Beck Sydow is the founder of Humankind Business Leaders and a leadership coach helping founders, CEOs, and senior teams become People Hearted and Business Minded. With a background in psychotherapy, Buddhist psychology, and years of operational leadership as COO and CEO of StickerGiant, Beck brings a grounded, deeply human approach to modern leadership.
In this episode, Beck breaks down why leaders lose clarity when fear takes over and how most organizations end up over-indexing on either the hard edge of business or the soft edge of caring for people. They share a simple but powerful practice for shifting from fear into curiosity, insight, and presence — a framework that helps leaders hold tension instead of collapsing into extremes.
We talk about: 🔹 Why fear causes leaders to double down on one side of the business 🔹 The People Hearted and Business Minded model for modern leadership 🔹 How fear shuts down clarity and drives reactive decision-making 🔹 The Two-Hand Practice for creating space and regaining perspective 🔹 Why leadership breakthroughs come from 1 percent shifts 🔹 How your nervous system shapes your entire organization 🔹 What freedom really means in the leadership journey 🔹 How to hold tension without burning out or disconnecting
Whether you’re navigating growth, uncertainty, or the pressure to get everything right, this conversation will give you a new way to think about leadership, fear, and the inner work required to lead with wisdom.
Quotes from the Episode: 💬 “If you can hold two things at once, you can lead with wisdom.” 💬 “Fear narrows your world. Curiosity opens it.” 💬 “We’re not trying to balance. We’re learning to hold.” 💬 “Freedom comes from knowing where you are and choosing how to respond.”
Actionable Takeaways: ✅ Practice the Two Hand method to shift from fear into curiosity ✅ Notice where you over-index on people or business when stressed ✅ Use small, consistent 1 percent moves to change your leadership ✅ Ground your nervous system before making key decisions ✅ Stay in inquiry when tension rises instead of collapsing into extremes ✅ Lead with clarity by holding both edges of leadership at the same time
Resources from this episode: → Humankind Business Leaders: https://www.humankindbusinessleaders.com/about → Connect with Beck: https://www.linkedin.com/in/becksydow/ → Grounding practices available under Resources on Beck’s website → Diagram download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AnP-9dMZEfh3f_rqN9a7yPsymCuoKLjW/view
Like what you heard? Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review. It helps more leaders build for freedom, not just scale.
🎧 For more conversations on leadership, clarity, and building companies that last, visit www.jeanmoncrieff.com
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Fear isn’t the enemy of leadership. Getting stuck in it is. And if you’re still leading from urgency, reactivity, or overcorrection, you’re already limiting your clarity. Beck Sydow is the founder of Humankind Business Leaders and a leadership coach helping founders, CEOs, and senior teams become People Hearted and Business Minded. With a background in psychotherapy, Buddhist psychology, and years of operational leadership as COO and CEO of StickerGiant, Beck brings a grounded, deeply human approach to modern leadership. In this episode, Beck breaks down why leaders lose clarity when fear takes over and how most organizations end up over-indexing on either the hard edge of business or the soft edge of caring for people. They share a simple but powerful practice for shifting from fear into curiosity, insight, and presence — a framework that helps leaders hold tension instead of collapsing into extremes. We talk about: 🔹 Why fear causes leaders to double down on one side of the business 🔹 The People Hearted and Business Minded model for modern leadership 🔹 How fear shuts down clarity and drives reactive decision-making 🔹 The Two-Hand Practice for creating space and regaining perspective 🔹 Why leadership breakthroughs come from 1 percent shifts 🔹 How your nervous system shapes your entire organization 🔹 What freedom really means in the leadership journey 🔹 How to hold tension without burning out or disconnecting Whether you’re navigating growth, uncertainty, or the pressure to get everything right, this conversation will give you a new way to think about leadership, fear, and the inner work required to lead with wisdom. Quotes from the Episode: 💬 “If you can hold two things at once, you can lead with wisdom.” 💬 “Fear narrows your world. Curiosity opens it.” 💬 “We’re not trying to balance. We’re learning to hold.” 💬 “Freedom comes from knowing where you are and choosing how to respond.” Actionable Takeaways: ✅ Practice the Two Hand method to shift from fear into curiosity ✅ Notice where you over-index on people or business when stressed ✅ Use small, consistent 1 percent moves to change your leadership ✅ Ground your nervous system before making key decisions ✅ Stay in inquiry when tension rises instead of collapsing into extremes ✅ Lead with clarity by holding both edges of leadership at the same time Resources from this episode: → Humankind Business Leaders: https://www.humankindbusinessleaders.com/about → Connect with Beck: https://www.linkedin.com/in/becksydow/ → Grounding practices available under Resources on Beck’s website → Diagram download: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AnP-9dMZEfh3f_rqN9a7yPsymCuoKLjW/view Like what you heard? Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review. It helps more leaders build for freedom, not just scale. 🎧 For more conversations on leadership, clarity, and building companies that last, visit www.jeanmoncrieff.com