Keyhole perspective

Editor's Notes

1. What we see is not always what is there! When there is an accident, police have come to expect differing opinions from each of the ‘eyewitnesses’. When sharing something that was heard from a client, sales managers have come to expect that the sales person will ‘report information that is skewed’ to their favor. Why is this and how does it reflect on leadership?   Let’s look first at our perceptions which influence our thinking and vice versa. Because what we see affects what we think. What we think influences what we believe and what we believe begets how we live. Beliefs trump truth every time! Perception is defined as: "the process of using the senses to acquire information about the surrounding environment or situation." Another definition is: "attitude or understanding based on what is observed or thought." In short, an "impression." Would you bet your company on an impression? That’s what entrepreneurs are doing on a day to day basis.   What influences our perceptions: The most common element is logic or reason. Human reason can filter out or accept new perceptions. Another element is values. Human values and culture can also filter or accommodate new perceptions regardless of the logicality of new information. These values may come from our religion or faith, education, or superstitions. The media is another influencer as well as the culture we grew up in and are in now - business. So how does that affect our leadership?   Gallup Study: Of the approximately 100 million people in America who hold full-time jobs, 30 million (30%) 
are engaged and inspired at work. At the other end of the spectrum are roughly 20 million (20%) employees are actively disengaged. The other 50 million (50%) American workers are not engaged. Gallup research has found that the top 25% of teams — the best managed — versus the bottom 25% in any workplace — the worst managed — have nearly 50% fewer accidents and 41% fewer quality defects. What’s more, teams in the top 25% versus the bottom 25% incur far less in healthcare costs. So having too few engaged employees means our workplaces are less safe, with more quality defects, and disengagement — which results from terrible managers — and is driving up the country’s healthcare and other costs. Gallup’s CEO Jim Clifton states: When leaders — wake up one morning and say collectively, “Let’s get rid of managers from hell, double the number of great managers and engage employees, and have those managers lead based on what actually matters,” everything will change. The country’s employees will be twice as effective, they’ll create far more customers, companies will grow, spiraling healthcare costs will decrease, and desperately needed GDP will boom like never before.