Are you a ‘zoomed-in’ or ‘zoomed-out’ leader?

There was no zoom lens before Austrian engineer Frank Gerhard Back developed his Zoomar varifocal lens in the 1940s. You couldn't go from a close-up to a distant view while keeping your focus razor-sharp. Or vice versa.

That zooming function is a useful metaphor to explain an important aspect of leadership: the mental agility to see things from different perspectives.

As Rosabeth Moss Kanter points out in an edition of HBR, “Some people prefer to see things up close, others from afar. Both perspectives—worm’s-eye and bird’s-eye—have virtues and pathologies. But they should be vantage points, not fixed positions. Leaders need multiple perspectives to get a complete picture. Effective leaders zoom in and zoom out.”

“Not every leader has that ability to change perspective at will”, says Dung Hoang, Principal at Odgers Berndtson Germany.

We are all familiar with the ‘detail manager’, the person who is most happy when dealing with the everyday details of short-term events and initiatives. This is the kind of leader with a zoomed-in perspective.

These are their tell-tale characteristics:

• They look for immediate benefits
• They make ad hoc decisions.
• They prefer having one-on-one conversations rather than group meetings.
• They look for quick fixes rather than stand back to seek underlying causes, alternatives, or long-term solutions.
• They prefer to work with someone they know rather than search more widely for expertise.

A tendency towards detail

Now, this kind of ‘zoomed-in’ tendency might work in some circumstances, but hardly ever for any length of time.

Isolated in this way, a leader can become out-of-touch as the world, technology and even their own company, changes around them.

There is a potential loss of perspective as they become so focused on doing and executing that they miss opportunities to pull back and incorporate new data or a shift in priorities.

“Taking action can become an addiction even if those actions are taking you off course”, says Christian Bauer, Associate Partner at Odgers Berndtson Germany.

Big picture person

In contrast, if a leader becomes to fixated with the ‘zoomed-out’ view, there are other dangers.

But before we consider those downsides, let’s list the characteristics of a zoomed-out leader:

• They will want to map the whole territory before taking action.
• They regard events as examples of general patterns.
• They put things in context and stress principles.
• They tie all action to strategic priorities.
• They don’t personalize issues.

Seeing patterns in times of chaos

In times of uncertainty and complexity, when things seem utterly muddled, seeing the bigger picture allows a leader to notice patterns and connections amidst the chaos.

They might also look back into history to learn and apply those insights to more contemporary solutions for the future.

Having a sense of history is a good way to avoid feeling overwhelmed by the everyday  because it teaches us that, despite everything, there is always a way forward.

Staying stuck on a zoomed-out view can have its downsides.

The first is a kind of separation from the reality of the everyday. And it’s worth remembering that every long-term trend or issue emerges out of the immediate. 

“Leaders lose the sense that the big picture might be contingent on a set of circumstances that may well evolve. But sometimes a novelty is a signal, heralding embryonic change,” explains the HBR.

These leaders might also seem to be remote and divorced from the everyday struggles faced by other colleagues. This is not good for morale or building a coherent company culture.

Perspective changes the game

If you cannot zoom, or refuse to, it’s bad news. That’s when problems arise as there is no diversity of perspective.

Diversity of perspective is really what it is all about. Whether in yourself as a leader who knows when to check themselves from one perspective and switch to another (and take their team along) or in how you hire to make a team that has a diversity of perspectives built-in.

On the subject of teams and more general collaboration and working together, the final word goes to Rosabeth Moss Kanter. She suggests that”… if people can’t shift from the worm’s-eye or bird’s-eye level, they often talk past one another. Those zooming in want to come back to the particulars and haggle over details, frustrating those who want patterns and a strategy. Those zooming out might seem theoretical and impractical, or find that their general frameworks and principles are not understood by those who zoom in. Hardened preferences can get in the way of good decisions.”

In a world of such rapid and often unexpected change, no-one should be stuck with a hardened perspective with no ability to zoom.

Something to talk about

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