High-agency people are rare, and once you work with them, you can’t unsee the difference.

A high-agency person doesn’t wait to be told what to do. they don’t wait for clarity, tools, permission, or a perfect plan. they step in, observe what’s broken, what’s missing, what’s needed and they start moving. even if they’re wrong at first, they move. momentum matters more than perfection.

Most people aren’t born this way. agency is something you build. it starts with taking responsibility for your own day. knowing what you’re working on, why you’re working on it, and whether it’s actually helping the team. it means replacing “i can’t because…” with “i’ll figure out how.” it means caring enough to close loops without being asked.

For people who don’t have high agency yet, the fastest way to build is :

-stop waiting for instructions

-pick one problem and own it end to end

-communicate progress, not excuses

-treat the company’s problems like your own

Agency grows when you put yourself in uncomfortable situations and still choose to act.

when we look for people to join our team, we don’t just look at skills. skills can be learned. agency is harder. 

We look for signals people who’ve built things on their own, taken responsibility without a title, figured things out when no one was guiding them. people who don’t disappear when things get messy.

Early teams don’t need passengers. they need people who can think, decide, and act. people who see problems and feel an internal responsibility to fix them. that’s what high agency looks like.

You can teach tools. you can teach process. But agency? that comes from within.