Changing the Leadership Lens – From Perspective to Possibility
Marion is a certified Executive Coach and Psychometric Practitioner, specialising in leadership coaching and team dynamics, and currently developing a digital application for self-directed, AI-supported coaching reflection. Marion has an MSc in Healthcare Management and is a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council UK.
Six months into a major transformation programme, progress has stalled. The strategy is sound. The leadership team is capable. Everyone says they support the direction. Yet decisions are slowing, meetings are circling, and different parts of the organisation are protecting their priorities and influence.
So, you do what experienced leaders are expected to do: provide more clarity, increase accountability, and push for pace. The situation gets worse.
Here is the uncomfortable possibility:
"What if the greatest constraint on what you can achieve is not the situation you are leading, but the lens that you are looking through?"
Sometimes, what limits a leader most is not the knowledge they lack, but the assumptions they no longer think to question.
The leadership lens
Leadership requires us to interpret situations before we have the complete picture. Experience gives us valuable pattern recognition: I’ve seen this before. It can save time, prevent mistakes, and enable decisive action.
But every strength has a shadow. The faster we recognise a familiar pattern, the easier it is to stop looking for what does not fit.
Our experience, beliefs, and expectations create our Leadership Lens, the perspective through which we interpret events. Once formed, that interpretation influences what we notice next:
The team is resistant. The stakeholder is difficult. The culture is the problem. Each may hold a fragment of truth. But once we accept it, it begins to shape what we notice and what we overlook, until one interpretation quietly becomes the only reality we can see. The experience that enables us to see quickly can sometimes prevent us from seeing differently.
What if resistance is information?
Return to the transformation programme. The leader concludes that the organisation is resisting change, so responds with more communication, stronger governance, and increased pressure. Then friction grows.
What happens if, instead of asking how to overcome resistance, the leader becomes curious about what it might be highlighting?
A more complex picture emerges. One group fears losing professional autonomy. Another sees an operational risk. Frontline teams understand the rationale but cannot see how it will work alongside existing pressures. Influential people were never meaningfully involved. They may have been informed or invited, but they did not actively contribute, shape decisions, or build commitment.
The strategy has not changed. The leader has changed the lens. What looked like a straightforward implementation problem now reveals questions of trust, identity, relationships, influence, and risk. The question is no longer, why are they resisting? It becomes: what can the resistance reveal?
This matters in complex organisations. A rational boardroom decision may feel very different on the frontline. A solution that improves one part of a system may create pressure elsewhere. No single vantage point contains the whole picture.
Changing the lens does not mean abandoning judgement. It means creating the opportunity to test it:
"What could I discover if I became curious before reaching a conclusion?"
Curiosity changes what becomes possible
Now the stakeholder once labelled “challenging” reveals that the implementation timeline could compromise safety. A frontline leader explains that teams need protected time and practical support, not more communication, to feel confident. A well-connected colleague brings together people whom the formal governance structure has failed to reach. A disagreement about delivery exposes a critical assumption: that every part of the organisation has the same capacity and readiness for change.
None of these people suddenly became less resistant. The leader became better at seeing what their resistance highlighted.
What initially appeared to be slowing progress was, in fact, revealing valuable information, relationships, and resources needed to move the work forward. Resistance offered insight. Disagreement exposed risk. Informal influence became an asset.
Curiosity is the discipline of remaining open long enough to determine whether the picture is complete. This becomes increasingly important with seniority: the consequences of a leader’s interpretation grow, while the likelihood that any one person holds all the necessary knowledge diminishes.
Sometimes, the most valuable contribution a leader can make is not to provide the solution, but to create the conditions for a better solution to emerge. Instead of asking, "How do I make this happen?" Ask, "What would make this more possible?"
The leader as part of the picture
It is easier to become curious about the organisation, culture, or stakeholder than about ourselves, yet the greatest insight may sit there. Experienced leaders often ask, what am I achieving? A harder question is, what am I enabling?
Leadership shapes what others feel able to say, challenge, own, and create. Your decisiveness may accelerate action, but could it narrow debate? Your expertise may reassure people, but could it encourage them to wait for your answer? Your ability to take control may rescue difficult situations, but have others learned that you will eventually take over?
What if the leadership strength you rely on also helps sustain the problem? This is not an argument for becoming less decisive or accountable. It invites you to understand how strengths operate in context. At senior levels, the question is not simply, Am I effective? It is: what does my effectiveness create around me?
Five ways to change your leadership lens
Challenge your interpretation: Separate what you know from what you have concluded. For example, a team missing a milestone may be labelled uncommitted when unclear priorities or competing demands are the real issue. Ask: What am I treating as fact that may only be my interpretation?
Examine your impact: Notice what your leadership encourages and what it may unintentionally inhibit. For example, regularly stepping in to solve problems may achieve a quick result while teaching others to wait for your answer. Ask: What are people learning to do, or not do, because of how I lead?
Listen beyond the obvious: Seek out the voices missing from the usual conversation. For example, a frontline colleague may identify a practical barrier that has never reached the leadership team. Ask: Whose voice could change my understanding of what is really happening?
Change the lens: Consider how others may experience the same situation. For example, a change that looks efficient from the boardroom may create additional pressure, risk, or confusion for those implementing it. Ask: If I viewed this through someone else’s eyes, what might I see that is invisible from my position?
Make space for new possibilities: Question what feels certain. Value your experience, but stay willing to test your assumptions. For example, an approach that succeeded previously may fail here because the people, relationships, and context are different. Ask: What might become possible if I questioned what I feel most certain about?
A space to think, not perform
Changing perspective is difficult when leaders are immersed in complexity and expected to project confidence, clarity, and answers. There may be few places where they can say: Perhaps I am seeing this incorrectly. I need to consider my part.
Senior leaders need somewhere they can think without simultaneously having to perform leadership. Executive coaching offers a safe, confidential, ethical, and non-judgmental space in which leaders can think openly and honestly. Grounded in trust, respect, and professional integrity, the coach does not impose solutions or direct the outcome. Instead, through purposeful challenge and reflection, coaching enables leaders to test assumptions, explore alternative perspectives, examine their impact, and make choices for which they retain ownership and responsibility.
That may mean having the courage to ask:
"What would I do differently if my current interpretation were wrong?"
Change the lens. Change what becomes possible. The strongest leaders are not those who always have the answer. They are those who remain curious long enough to notice what others, and perhaps they themselves, have not yet seen.
Experience matters, but it is never the whole picture. Senior leadership is not simply about defining the way forward for others. It is about creating the conditions for people to challenge assumptions, contribute insight, and shape a stronger way forward together.
Sometimes, a complex situation does not need another immediate solution. It needs a different way of seeing what is possible.
Change the lens, and different choices become visible. Different choices open new possibilities, and new possibilities can shape a different future.
Feeling stuck? A different perspective could reveal a new way forward. Arrange a confidential, no-obligation conversation here or email me here.
The views expressed in this article are entirely my own and do not reflect those of any organisation with which I am currently or have previously been associated.
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Read more from Marion Isabelle Smith
Marion Isabelle Smith, Executive Coach & Transformation Consultant
Marion Smith is a certified Executive Coach and Organisational Transformation Consultant, and founder of CoachMuse.com with expertise in leading change in complex environments. Marion offers Executive Coaching and a range of psychometric services, specialising in leadership coaching and team dynamics. Marion is developing a digital application for self-directed, AI-supported coaching reflection. As an executive coach, her mission is to empower leaders to tap their inner resourcefulness for change.
