Leary's Rose: who’s at the wheel for you?

We’re constantly responding to one another.
Through words, glances, body language, and tone of voice, we send out signals all day long. Often without even realizing it—and yet with a significant impact. Because behavior begets behavior. And that’s exactly where many leaders run into trouble.

You mean well, yet you encounter resistance. Or you give people space, but they become dependent. You ask for initiative, but are met with silence. Sound familiar?

Sometimes we act on autopilot: we direct, avoid, concede, or clash, without consciously choosing our behavior. And at the same time, we expect others to follow us, cooperate, or change. But true leadership doesn’t start with others.

It starts with you

How well do you know your own behavioral patterns?
What do you elicit in others without even realizing it?
And how can you consciously influence that?

Patterns that are stronger than you think

Behavioral patterns often creep into our interactions unconsciously. They repeat themselves—sometimes for years—without us fully understanding why. We keep encountering the same reactions, in the same situations, with the same people. These patterns are more powerful than we realize. Not because they can’t be broken, but because we rarely truly see them. If you want to change patterns, you must first learn to recognize, understand, and acknowledge them.

The Leary Rose offers a surprisingly clear framework for this. The model, developed by psychologist Timothy Leary, shows how behavior arises in interaction and how you can influence it.

The model in a nutshell

The Rose is based on two axes:

• the dominance axis (top–bottom): leading versus following behavior
• the cooperation axis (against–with): confrontational versus connecting behavior

By plotting behavior on these axes, a dynamic model emerges that helps you better understand both yourself and the other person.

🧭 Coaching behavior (top-with) often elicits cooperative behavior (bottom-with)
⚡ Controlling behavior (top-against) often provokes resistance (bottom-against)

The power of the Rose? It helps you make conscious choices:
What do you want to reinforce? What do you want to break through? And what behavior does the situation truly call for?

From Insight to Experience

In the training ‘From Self-awareness to Team Impact—The Horse as a Mirror’, you’ll experience this through equicoaching: not role-playing, but direct feedback from a horse. Horses react purely to your energy, intention, and nonverbal behavior. They mirror what you may not yet see in yourself—and they do so without judgment.

In “Managing Behavior with Leary’s Rose”, you’ll learn to examine everyday interactions in the workplace with the same depth of insight. You’ll analyze patterns, practice new behaviors, and gain insight into how your leadership comes across and how it can evolve.

Both training programs are designed for leaders who want to go beyond tips and tricks—for those who dare to explore what’s really going on, both within themselves and in their relationships with others.

Because behavior isn’t a coincidence.
It’s communication. Influence. And perhaps your most powerful tool as a leader.