Climbing the Ladder: A Leadership Lens

What a colorful lens we each look through, or perhaps it’s not as colorful as we think. It was a privilege to spend a recent Saturday with engineering students at the Virginia Tech Torgersen Leadership Summit and a reminder of how much our experiences shape our thinking, our decision making, our everything. Nostalgia took me back to the duck pond, the NEB (now called Durham Hall), and for a run through the engineering campus (fighting tears and emotion as I ran by Norris Hall). It was remarkable how much remained the same, and how at the same time it was a whole new world (I mean, when did they get food options anywhere close to the engineering campus). Food aside, it was delightful to go back to my roots and create a space for current students to grow.

I’m not sure what I was thinking when I accepted an invitation to think about leadership in no more than 45 minutes… it happens all the time, for many reasons, but it sure is hard to do. Leadership isn’t easy business – and anyone who says it is – please share your secret. We live in this interesting, complex world, where what works today might not work tomorrow. What works with one team member, almost definitely won’t land the same with the next. That’s tricky business. As I talked with a team of bright and thoughtful leaders from the Virginia Tech Institute of Industrial and System Engineers (VTIISE), they sparked my interest and curiosity around what I might have liked to have learned more about as a student… fully knowing that I might not have been ready to receive it.

What I wished I had known, at least more explicitly, what’s happening inside our heads as we take in information and make decisions. We scan a situation, select data, and go. It’s an automatic process, but one that’s colored by (and reinforced by) our own experiences. By way of a straightforward example – accepting a job offer – I offered students a glimpse into the ways our mental models take hold, without our awareness. Here’s a snapshot of the scenario… feel free to play along (and select the manager of your choosing)

Scenario: You are 10-months into your first engineering rotation at the company where you previously interned. Considerations for your next rotation are underway and you have two offers in hand. Both positions offer an opportunity to be a part of the next major product release for the company, the main difference is the manager to whom you will report.

So, who did you choose? Manager One or Manager Two? Was it an easy choice or a hard one? What data most influenced you? Why? (Feel free to share in the comments.)

After taking a quick poll in the room, it turned out that both managers were equally sought-after, with a 50-50 split. This wasn’t the interesting bit. The interesting piece was how, after reading just a few short sentences, devoid of pronouns, physical descriptors, or performance rating, participants managed to paint a vivid image of each manager. One student exuberantly defended her choice of Manager One, saying: it would be awesome to work for a strong female leader like this.” When questioned about the gender, the student went back to the text to find out that she had entirely fabricated Manager One’s gender. This gave her pause, and she began to wonder what else she had made up. We had an engaging conversation, hearing varying interpretations of the same characteristic. One student interpreted “personable and hands-on” as a positive where he would be engaging with his manager frequently; while another saw this as a negative, thinking his manager might micromanage projects. “Been in this role for a decade” turned into uninspired and unmotivated for some, while it was dedicated and committed to another.

As we continued to explore together, some students, changed their initial pick after hearing from their partner, while others held to their original. Regardless, participants all walked away with a greater awareness of how we make sense of the things around us, constructing meaning as we go. Students were offered Chris Argyris’ Ladder of Inference (LOI)as a way to characterize the automatic process running in our heads (one of many possible models… and one that paints a vivid picture, itself: how we select from observable data, interpret and assign meaning, and ultimately draw conclusions. And, it catches any one of us by surprise, even those of us who try to stay on top of it (and reinforce it with our clients). As I planned the program, I thought about sharing the LOI and at least three colleagues reinforced that idea.

I almost abandoned it, but then went ahead, partly because I thought I had a clever way to introduce it, just through the title of the program – Careers and Climbing the Ladder. (It did turn out to be an interesting twist, with most participants expecting to walk away with the ‘formula’ to climb the career ladder). By sharing something quite different, students were invited to consider their own mental models, as was I. When asked: “who has heard of the Ladder of Inference?” fewer than three of 100 hands raised. If I asked this same question in my organization development circles, no fewer than three hands would likely stay down. What a great reminder of how I climb the ladder every day.

Elise Foster (@elisefoster) is an engineer turned executive coach, writer and speaker, who spends her days helping leaders uncover their hidden barriers to change. As a co-author of The Multiplier Effect and contributor to Multipliers, she is privileged to work with leaders across the globe to challenge the status quo of leadership, striving to bring out the best in every single person; and she realizes, just because she wrote the book, doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a lot to learn herself.

Originally Posted on LinkedIn