Interpretation matters in leadership. What we make of raw data becomes what we act on.

Something happens in a meeting. I make a read of it. An interpretation. An addition. Almost immediately I stop experiencing it as my read and start experiencing it as reality. Then I take it to others as how things are, not as I think they are. What I do not say is what I made up to get there.

Once I hold it as reality, what I left out stays out. People agree or disagree with my conclusion while possibly holding a different read underneath, which I might never discover. It shows up later, as things not moving. Which in my experience gets called resistance to change.

This happens automatically in me. And when I have said it out loud, others have recognised it in themselves.

Why I do not see what I add

That we add is fairly easy to read about, easy to see in others, and at times easy to see in myself afterwards.

I notice it is hard to see while I am doing it. I am usually already moving, and stopping to look at what I added feels like a detour from the work.

And when I do look, I find myself arguing for it. Even when it has plainly not held. I do not want to admit I was adding.

That is where I work. Seeing and revising the adding while we are in it. While strategy is forming, while decisions are being made, while disagreement is unfolding.

So that others can meet my read with theirs.