Our perception of the world we live in and the people around us shape our reality over time.  Is what we see, hear and feel the way things truly are?  How do our perceptions influence us in ways we do not even realize?

Certainly our life experiences, beginning with our parentage and continuing through our upbringing, have a massive effect on how we perceive our environment.  Our human senses are the filter through which everything that happens around us is processed.  We start out life with a clean filter; over time, that filter accumulates the particles of life experience and may alter or even inhibit what information can pass through it.

Meanwhile, the choices we make also accumulate and add layers of filtering to those that came earlier.  Just as with an air filter, accumulation will slow flow and, in extreme cases, the filter can even become completely blocked.  If that unfortunate event happens, the human being becomes an impasse to new ideas, information and insights.  Progress is prevented and that situation can even choke off a healthy life.  Fortunately for us, we can choose to clean those filters and improve the flow; it requires vigorous and ongoing effort, yet it can be done.

The implications of all this are huge for leaders who seek to create and lead diverse teams in pursuit of worthwhile goals.  Diversity is a beautiful thing, if the leader and the team can both recognize and appreciate the different perspectives and perceptions that come along with it.  Invariably, the people who comprise those teams all own different filter systems, some of which are cleaner than others.

Leaders must first clean their own filters, however, through an effort to “Know Thyself”.  Equipped with a deeper and much clearer understanding of how they perceive the world, the journey to become Leadership Worthy can proceed and engage others along the way.

Through disciplined effort to Look and Listen, it’s possible for Leaders to enhance first their own Perception and then that of others.   The odds of success increase exponentially when perceptions align with Reality.

Tempus Maximize!