Early this year, Fernando Yévenes U. had the opportunity to step away from the urgency of delivery and spend time reflecting on leadership, transformation, and the systems we are part of, during the GHD Technical Leaders Forum in Houston, Texas. Experiences like these don’t always leave you with answers, sometimes they leave you with better questions.
One idea that stayed with him is the concept of polarities. Not problems to solve, but tensions to be lived with, navigated, and continuously balanced. Transformation, after all, is rarely about choosing one side: it is about holding two truths at the same time. A polarity that particularly resonated with him was trust and respect, especially because it doesn’t immediately present itself as one. Trust is about safety, vulnerability, and the quiet confidence that you can be human without fear. Respect, on the other hand, is rooted in competence, capability, and recognition. Trust feels horizontal: we are in this together. Respect feels vertical: I acknowledge your expertise and your value. When one exists without the other, something feels off. High trust without respect can slowly drift into complacency. High respect without trust may deliver results, but often at the cost of anxiety, distance, or silence. Performance might survive, people might not. What struck him most is the paradox at the centre of this polarity. Respect is often earned through distance, through consistency, boundaries, and demonstrated capability. Trust, however, grows through closeness, through openness, humility, and the willingness to be seen as imperfect. Leadership lives exactly there, in that tension. The leaders who have had the greatest impact on him are those he felt safe enough to speak honestly with, and respected enough not to want to disappoint. Not because of fear, but because of alignment. He's still sitting with this idea. Observing it in his own relationships, his teams, and himself. Not trying to “fix” the tension, but learning to notice when the balance shifts, and what that shift is trying to teach him.
Sometimes transformation begins not with action, but with attention.
FYU engineering