How Great Leaders See Differently

“Your decisions are only as good as the world you can see,” explain the authors of the new book, The Panoramic Leader: How Great Leaders See Differently. “And in a rapidly shifting business landscape, the most successful leaders learn to see more.”

Authors Cornelia Choe and Marshall Goldsmith explain that talented leaders don’t fail for lack of intelligence or experience. Instead, they fail because they make decisions based on a partial view of their environment and miss critical insights.

As you read the book, you’ll learn that panoramic intelligence is about training yourself to see through more than just your own lens. It’s learning to consider the perspectives of the full range of stakeholders who affect your company—including ones who wouldn’t traditionally be considered in stakeholder profiles. It’s about stepping back to see the bigger picture.

Choe and Goldsmith explain further that panoramic leadership consists of three lenses:

Inner Lens – How you see yourself and regulate your internal map.
Relational Lens – How you create insight by combining perspectives.
Outer Lens – How you engage the wider stakeholder system.

With compelling stories spanning Fortune 500 CEOs (from Cisco to Ford to Unilever) to innovative founders, the authors share in the book these additional ways to expand leadership perspectives:

Get Up Close to stakeholders, problems, and opportunities beyond your usual inner circle.
Establish Meaningful Bonds built on common ground, trust, and high-quality connection.
Map Your Evolving Perspective by assessing stakeholder alignment and refreshing your decision-making framework.

Digging deeper into the book, you’ll discover how visionary chef Ferran Adrià reinvented modern cuisine by shifting how he saw ingredients. How Serena Williams transformed her game by opening herself to a new coach’s radically different perspective. And how jazz legend Wynton Marsalis creates extraordinary music by holding certain elements constant while exploring everything else.

Finally, the authors share that “practicing panoramic leadership is not a one-and-done event, rolled out only for special occasions or filed away and quickly forgotten. Instead, it’s a lifelong practice that can bring you and those around you more success, fulfillment, and joy.”

Choe and Goldsmith share these additional insights with us:

Question: How do you encourage readers to help others become panoramic leaders and what are the most effective ways to multiply this impact across an organization or industry?

Choe/Goldsmith: Panoramic leadership multiplies when leaders change the question people ask. Instead of asking only, "What is the answer?" teams begin asking: Whose perspective is missing? What are our assumptions and which may no longer be true? What are different stakeholders seeing? The most effective leaders don't keep these questions to themselves. They embed them into the way their organizations operate.

Question: What Panoramic leadership practice would you recommend any leader start applying today and why?

Choe/Goldsmith: Start with one question: What are others seeing that I am not? Ask it before a major decision. Ask it when you feel certain. Ask it when someone disagrees with you. Ask it when a situation surprises you. That question is simple, but it changes everything. It interrupts autopilot thinking, expands perspective, and helps leaders see risks and opportunities around corners. Your decisions are only as good as the world you can see. Panoramic leaders learn to see more.

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The Panoramic Leader will change how you make decisions, align teams, and navigate uncertainty. Because in complex environments, perspective isn’t a luxury, it’s a strategic advantage.
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Choe is an international leadership expert, global keynote speaker, and Thinkers50 Radar honoree who has advised hundreds of CEOs and senior leaders across five continents, helping them make better decisions in complex, high stakes environments.

Goldsmith is a new member of the Thinkers 50 Hall of Fame. He is the only two-time Thinkers 50 #1 Leadership Thinker in the world. He has been ranked as the world’s #1 Executive Coach and Top Ten Business Thinker for eight years. Marshall was chosen as the inaugural winner of the Lifetime Award for Leadership by the Harvard Institute of Coaching.

Goldsmith is also the author or editor of 41 books, which have sold over 2.5 million copies, been translated into 32 languages and become listed bestsellers in 12 countries.

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

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