I meet with our director of sales and business development, Zack Reichert, every week. This past Monday, we sat down for our first session of 2026.
The purpose of the meeting is twofold: First, we talk about high-level sales opportunities and how we can go after them. Second, I try to help Zack get what he wants in terms of his own career development path.
He is an incredible professional to work with and someone who, if you loosely explain what you are looking for, will come back with something you may never have considered possible. What I realized during this meeting is that I have not always done a great job of staying at that level. Too often, I drift into prescribing the how instead of clearly describing the what.
When I do that, I am committing a leadership sin.
I think George Romero understood this well when he was shooting zombie movies. He was often asked by extras how he wanted them to walk. His answer was simple: “Act like a zombie.” He later explained that if he had demonstrated a specific walk or posture, he would have ended up with a thousand people doing the exact same thing. Instead, by simply describing the outcome, he allowed each person to interpret it in their own way. The result was far more authentic and required less guidance instead of more. Prescription would’ve relegated Night Of The Living Dead to ignominy.
Also by Henry Clifford: Mind the Gap – The Simplest Way to Be Happier in 2026
As leaders, it is hard to stop at the describe stage and resist the urge to prescribe. It feels efficient in the moment, but it kills innovation. If you have read any of my previous articles, you know that people exist along the EDGE Framework continuum, whether it’s Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, or Enable. Describe vs. prescribe is not one size fits all.
Once someone understands the why behind what they are doing, they should be given a certain amount of latitude in how they execute. When that happens, they are far more likely to be invested in the work. It becomes a “get to” instead of a “have to.”
Think about the people in your orbit. How many of them are you describing to vs. prescribing? Now think about the energy required each time you have to step in and tell someone exactly what to do. Compare that to the energy it would take to spend a little more time describing the objective, letting them puzzle through it, struggle with it, and eventually achieve it. After one or two repetitions, they are often self-sufficient.
When you stay stuck in a loop of describing and prescribing, or worse, just prescribing, you sentence yourself to an endless cycle of infantilizing the people around you. That stunts their growth and yours, whether you are moving from doer to manager or from manager to leader.
If you cannot get out of their way (or yours), you are doing everyone a disservice. We should all be optimizing for the highest and best use of our time. When you surround yourself with people who can receive describe inputs and prescribe in their own way, it frees you to focus on what you do best. If you are reading this, that likely means working on the business instead of in the business. Especially this time of year, that means getting your strategic plan off to a strong start, helping your people succeed, and removing the immovable objects in their path.
Also by Henry Clifford: The EDGE Sales Coaching Framework
When we stay trapped in the prescription loop, we destroy our own time efficiency. We also kill initiative within our teams. People become afraid to fail. They feel like they do not have permission to take risks. Organizations stall, and growth slows.
The next time you are in a meeting, try not to be the first person to speak. This is easier said than done. In fact, I broke my own rule in a leadership meeting this morning.
If you set a true north rule for yourself that says, “I will not be the first person to speak in this meeting,” you may end up being the third, fourth, or fifth voice instead. That space gives your team time to solve the problem. Often, the solution is already sitting in front of you. If you jump in too quickly, you rob the team of the chance to learn in the moment.
This is no different from parenthood. If you rush to solve every problem for your family, whether it is your children, your spouse, or others close to you, you take away learning opportunities. Some of the most valuable growth happens in the gap between describe and prescribe.
So, the question is simple. What will you do to give your employees permission to take your describe inputs and prescribe in their own way, knowing they will make mistakes along the way?
Stay frosty, and see you in the field.
