A reflection from Tia Glave, Catalyst Co-Founder
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The food industry is at a crossroads.
With shrinking labor pools, rising costs, and constant pressure to do more with less, 2026 isn’t going to reward survival-mode leadership.
It will demand something better.
Food leaders who create trust on purpose. Who think beyond their own to-do lists. Who build cultures where people and performance grow together.
That kind of leadership doesn’t just happen. It happens through leadership systems that...
You’ve said it. We’ve all said it:
"We just need people to take more ownership."
But what if your leadership habits are unintentionally training people not to?
The Control Trap
In high-pressure environments like food manufacturing and production, it’s easy for leaders to default to control. We manage tasks, make decisions quickly, and expect people to follow through.
And it works—until it doesn’t.
Because control creates compliance, not commitment. And cultures built on compliance don’t gr...
