What Do You See? Leading with Curiosity

Check out this picture my 13-year-old son Elliott took Sunday night on the way home from a Kansas City soccer tournament. We were driving X miles per hour through Missouri and he put the phone camera right on the sunroof window. Based on what you see, how would you describe it? On a scale from 1-10 how you rate his ability to capture the moment? If you needed a photographer for your next family photo would you call him?
 
Yes – this picture you are looking at is the picture we are asking you to look at. If you are asking, “Am I missing something?”, the answer is yes. Just wait a minute and I’ll show you.
 
Here’s what I want us to ponder for a moment.
 
In the rush of the day, we often look at projects, progress, and attempts from team members and make assumptions about what we are seeing. Much of the organizational conflict and personnel chaos comes from team members making quick and, oftentimes, wrong assumptions of team members.
 
We often make assumptions instead of asking, “Is there something I’m missing?”. “Could there be more than what I’m seeing?” Many of you reading this have taken the SDI 2.0 and remember that we are all motivated differently and tackle our work with diverse perspectives. This reality impacts what we say, what we hear and what we assume when we stop listening.
 
The sad reality is that there is greatness all around us all the time, but so often we miss it because we only take a quick glance. Here’s my point. Take the time to lean in and ask more questions in a curious way to learn about what you might not be seeing before making a judgement about what you think you see.
 
Final Activity: Save the picture and zoom in. Hit reply or leave a comment about what you see. More importantly – Start slowing down and lead with curiosity to make sure you don’t have greatness around you that you are simply missing.