Kanter offers leaders a good, simple metaphor for strategic thinking. The Zoom in/ Zoom out button on a camera. Check out her recent short blog video on HBR here
Leaders need to Zoom in close to the details and personal relationships involved with the work
Leaders need to Zoom out to the bigger picture and the wider context.
Leaders tend to be comfortable with one or another focus. Most of us can immediately say what focus we default to:
Zoom in: The detail/information/ immediate people involved/data
Zoom out: The abstract/ longer term/ wide view
Both zoom positions are required but being flexible in focusing attention is a huge skill. Increasing the ability to zoom in and zoom out, moment to moment, takes practice. Here are a few questions that can help test the zooming ability.
What am I spending most of my time looking at? (Zoom out)
What is in the background and what is happening in the wider context? (Zoom out)
Have I become to remote from the actual issues, what further specific information might be required ? (Zoom in)
What are the important general principals and enduring truths here? (Zoom out)
Have I seen enough to make an informed decision? (Zoom in)
How connected am I with the day to day world of my people involved with this issue? (Zoom in)
Happy leading with zoom function!
I’d like to find the autofocus sometimes ( – :
Great post.