Leadership skills – what lens are you looking through?
Leadership Skills – What Lens Are You Looking Through Today?
In my coaching with leaders, influence is the missing piece that comes up time and time again.
I’m sure you’re familiar with the expression “we see what we want to see.” It’s true. We see the world from our own perspective and our lens isn’t always clear. Our subconscious filters the information we then receive and reject so it fits with our view of reality.
Psychologist and coach Dr Linda Humphreys says “Perception is merely a lens or mindset from which we view people, events, and things.”
How your lens shapes your reality.
Most of are probably totally unaware that we have a lens shaping our view. Lenses are created by our life experiences, our fears, our status, our finances, our health, our family, and our culture. Each of these sharpens an angle on the lens through which we see the world.
This is all totally understandable, but what it means is that we make our actions and choices based on what we believe to be right. We’re driven by our subconscious and not always by fact or evidence.
I think this is the reason we’re all getting so hot under the collar about things like climate change, BLM or whatever the issue of the moment happens to be. We’re clashing because we’re looking at the topic through vastly different lenses. What a waste of energy!
Who’s right?
In reality, we ALL want the world to be a better place. We ALL want a fair go for every person on earth. We ALL want to do the right thing by the people and the planet. We just can’t agree on how to achieve this and that’s all down to the lenses we’re looking through.
Edward de Bono is quoted as saying, “Perception is real even when it is not reality.” Nothing is black and white. All opposing ideas, positions, and views are as valid as your own. It’s the truth as seen by each individual.
No one person owns the truth; we all own a piece of it.
Are you willing to change your lens?
Watching the news or being on social media is uncomfortable, now. It’s full of opposing stories and contradictory information. We’re expecting other people to change to fit in with our perception of the truth but what if we’re not seeing it clearly? What if our own lens is distorting the truth?
Being aware of how our lens colours our perception is valuable, but being willing to see things from a different perspective is priceless.
How about we make a concerted effort to manage our lens? I know it’s not easy, but try this:
- Next time you’re feeling triggered by a person, comment, or a situation, pause before you react. Ask yourself what it was that caused your reaction. What values were being challenged or what was threatening to you? What were you going to lose?
- Instead of looking from a worst-case scenario, try to look for the positives. They’ll be there. If you can find some positives, you’ve found some middle ground to work from. You’ve found where you’re both right.
Change won’t happen until we learn to consider the merits of different opinions and points of view. Remember: we’re all right and we’re all wrong. The truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Perspective is one of the core foundations of Influence. What I've learned in my career is the art of influence is the most powerful and transformational skills you can master,
The senior leaders I work with master the 9 accelerators to intensify their impact and performance, they go from feeling overwhelmed and not sure how to navigate the uncertainty, to owning their power to lead.
And yes, they're still managing to do this, even with doubt.
If you’re ready to work on your leadership skills, I can help you. Book a free Leadership Mastery Analysis with me and become the best leader you can be.
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P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways I can help you intensify your impact, influence and income.
1. Grab a Copy of my Latest Book (available in all good bookstores, and on Audible)
Lead Beyond 2030 shares the nine skills you need to intensify your leadership impact. A powerful exploration of what separates great leaders from the rest. - Find Out More
2. FREE - Test Your Leadership Scorecard:
Discover your leadership score and the 9 leadership accelerators to increase your ability to intensify your impact and performance. — Click Here
3. Join our Master Influence Program and be a Case Study
If you're ambitious, this is for you - I’m putting together a new leadership case study group… stay in touch for details. If you’d like to work with me to master the art of influence and unleash your most powerful self…Click Here
The ability to influence is the greatest accelerator of impact and performance, and it intensely affects our career, our income and how we lead people. — Find Out More
4. Work with me privately
If you’d like to work with me privately to take your career, impact and leadership to the next level… send me a message and with the word “Privately”… tell me about yourself and what you'd like to focus on together and achieve, and I’ll get you all the details! — Click Here
Caroline Kennedy, author of Lead Beyond 2030: The Nine Skills You Need to Intensify Your Leadership Impact, is an accomplished, award-winning CEO and global thought leader on business and leadership. She is a highly sought-after mentor and coach to top global executives. A respected keynote speaker and author, Caroline’s methods are neuroscience-based to achieve rapid development and growth.