OK, example time…
A leader I knew a long way back had a very clear idea of how good leadership should look. In his mind, leaders showed up confident, composed, non- wavering, and in charge. The structure of his thinking led him to focus his own development on a certain style of executive presence that was polished, communication that was direct and always on purpose, and way of carrying himself and sitting in meetings that non- verbally gave the message that he was the center of the room. Not good, not bad, this simply was his structure of interpretation, and it was so clear and important to him, that he used it to assess his staff’s competence as well as the content of the leadership
pprrograms they delivered for clients.
This worked well for him…until it didn’t. What he could not see from this structure of interpretation was how it limited his perception to the point where he missed opportunities to build relationships and explore points of view that would have enabled greater agility during a particularly challenging transition process. It was not even clear if he knew he missed those opportunities. (You don’t know what you don’t know, and you can’t see what you can’t see.)
Download Article 1K Club
