Seeing the bigger picture as a leader is one of your most important tasks. Overcoming tunnel vision in leadership might be literally a matter of life and death. Even if you’re not responsible for the lives of hundreds of people, your team is looking to you for vision and guidance. You can’t provide that when you think small. If you’re too focused on one thing you might end up like those unfortunate pilots on that American Airlines flight. They were concentrating so hard on one little dashboard light that they ended up steering the plane straight into the ground. Good leaders have to be big picture thinkers. Your team members need to concentrate on their assigned tasks. They can’t afford to get distracted. Keeping one eye on the broad view is your job. Seeing the bigger picture as a leader means keeping your purpose firmly in mind. Leadership is about thinking ahead and making sure you’re all on the right path. When you’re working towards overcoming tunnel vision in leadership, you look at all the dials on your dashboard, not just the one that’s blinking right now. What’s the weather like? How much fuel do you have left? Are the passengers happy? It’s a leader’s job to take into account the variables of the situation and work out a plan that covers them all. The third “C” of leadership is “Confirm.” Don’t just make assumptions that everything is going well. Keep your finger on the pulse of your organization. That means you have to hold your people accountable, too. You need to be able to trust your team’s competence. Time spent micromanaging is time that takes away from seeing the bigger picture as a leader.

• published: 13 Nov 2018
• views: 622