Why Leaders Need Better Perspective, Not More Data  🔗 **Source:** [Why Leaders Need Better Perspective, Not More Data](https://share.snipd.com/episode/8f7d401e-feb7-4802-8974-b24c40d0a49a) ## Highlights - **AI Is Commoditizing Data And Dulling Judgment** - AI commoditizes data and makes information widely accessible, which reduces the unique information advantage leaders once held. - Cornelia Choe warns this widespread access is dulling human judgment as many employees accept AI outputs without verifying them, causing errors in work. Transcript: Cornelia Choe It's really convenient to get a lot of data today. And AI has really commoditized data. And for so long, we've looked to leaders to give us the right information and for them to be chosen because they're smart and because they have the right experience. And today, this knowledge is really accessible at our fingertips. But what we're really lacking and losing today is judgment. And it comes both across the board with all employees using AI. And it really depends on how we use AI. We can take what we're given for granted and move forward with that. But we have surveys showing that more than 50% of employees using AI have made mistakes in their work by using it. And that over 50% of employees don't verify what they get from AI. And what that's doing is really dulling our judgment. ([Time 0:02:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ec178c88-1b2f-4d0f-9d6f-801f128b969d)) - **Perspective Blindness Explains Repeated Leadership Misses** - Perspective blindness is when leaders believe they see the whole picture but miss rapid, overlapping changes affecting different stakeholders. - Cornelia Choe explains there's no single new normal today because changes keep arriving before teams adapt, creating blind spots. Transcript: Cornelia Choe So perspective blindness is a state in which we believe that we see the whole picture. And today the problem is there's so much change. There's change happening all over to the left and to the right. And no leader can understand all of that change. We don't know how it's affecting all our different team members. And we don't know everything that's happening out there because there's so much of it. Before change was really a disruption of the status quo. We had the status quo and then we had a beginning, a middle and end of change. And then we had the new normal. The problem with today is that we don't have a new normal. ([Time 0:04:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/99d6bd9a-9868-49a3-8aca-cd5f230a8acc)) - **Childhood Move Forced A Map Rewrite And Empathy** - Cornelia moved from Minnesota to Seoul at age 10 and had to rewrite her internal map when cultural assumptions failed. - This childhood shift taught her to intentionally update maps by learning others' perspectives to make friends and succeed across cultures. Transcript: Cornelia Choe I was raised in Minnesota until I was 10. And I had a pretty happy childhood out in nature, a lot of friends, and a lot of my friends were blonde. So I thought I was blonde growing up. Because when you're small, you don't think about it. You just think you are whatever you see. And then I moved to Korea, to South Korea, to Seoul when I was 10. And I had the shock of my life. The first question I asked my mom at the airport was, where did they find so many people with black hair? And how did they get them all in the same room? I had never seen anything like that before. And I had to completely rewrite my map of who I was and how I was supposed to be. And I was promised a whole world of loving relatives who were waiting for me. Well, that wasn't true. They were totally confused by who I was. They told me I looked Korean, but I wasn't acting. And I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to act. And so we're all... Probably didn't speak Korean, I imagine, at that time at that point or in your life definitely not enough and not very well at all and so we all carry around inside an operating system Like an internal GPS guiding us on what works, what doesn't, which we get from our successes and our failures that we've lived through. And we call this our internal map. And this is something we need to update. And for me, when I got to Korea, it got really confusing until one time I saw an interview with an actress who was a single mother, and she was saying that she's gone through a lot of moments Of anger and sadness and joy. And it helps her become better at her craft and a better actress because she's able to understand more of her characters. And I thought, that's my job. That's what I need to do is to understand a lot of perspectives and the people around me and update my map. ([Time 0:09:21](https://share.snipd.com/snip/75404af4-845c-48a1-8d27-d45645c69afe)) - **Use GEM To Update Your Mental Map Regularly** - Do use the GEM framework: Get up close, Establish meaningful bonds, and Map your evolving perspective to reduce blind spots. - Cornelia recommends starting by meeting people who think differently, then building trust to continuously update your mental map. Transcript: Cornelia Choe Sure. It's a very intuitive framework, and we call it GEM, and it stands for Get Up Close, Establish Meaningful bonds and map your evolving perspective. So that basically boils down to step one, where we're actually willing to get up close to people who think differently. And there's no pressure, just talk to them, share their point of view. And we use a lot of curiosity and courage at this point, just to approach them and say, hey, you know, do you want to meet for a coffee? If that's not possible or if it's dangerous for some reason, then we can potentially read about them or talk to someone we know in common. And just to get an idea of what they're thinking and try to put ourselves in their shoes. And the problem a lot of leaders have is that when you're a founder or a CEO and the higher you go in the hierarchy, the less you hear of what people actually think and you hear more of what People think you want to hear. And so creating a relationship of trust, which is step number two, to really deepen this relationship instead of a one-off encounter and say, look, I'm happy to meet from time to time And to update your map according to what they see, that's extremely helpful because that's when you really get an understanding of what your stakeholders or the people around you are Really thinking. And that's what helps you update your map, which is step three. ([Time 0:13:03](https://share.snipd.com/snip/04e69b6d-167d-469f-8012-99d07eafa91c)) - **Get Close To Different Thinkers With Curiosity** - Do get up close to people who think differently using curiosity and courage, even informal coffee conversations, to learn their point of view. - Cornelia warns leaders often hear only what they want to hear, so recurring, trust-based conversations reveal real perspectives. Transcript: Cornelia Choe And there's no pressure, just talk to them, share their point of view. And we use a lot of curiosity and courage at this point, just to approach them and say, hey, you know, do you want to meet for a coffee? If that's not possible or if it's dangerous for some reason, then we can potentially read about them or talk to someone we know in common. And just to get an idea of what they're thinking and try to put ourselves in their shoes. And the problem a lot of leaders have is that when you're a founder or a CEO and the higher you go in the hierarchy, the less you hear of what people actually think and you hear more of what People think you want to hear. ([Time 0:13:24](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6aaddbf8-6a77-4d17-8e99-215d52f3f9a6)) - **Build Trusting Bonds To Hear Honest Perspectives** - Establish meaningful bonds beyond one-off meetings so others trust you enough to share honest views and update your map continuously. - Cornelia pairs leaders into small circles chosen for differing thinking styles, not backgrounds, to generate more options and solutions. Transcript: Cornelia Choe Really get an understanding of what your stakeholders or the people around you are really thinking. And that's what helps you update your map, which is step three. If you talk about a subject in common, then you'll be able to say, okay, is where that subject is on my map. They see it differently. I'm going to add on to it. I didn't know that this was possible. And I get this comment a lot in the circles I lead of leaders who are chosen to work together into small circles because they think differently, not necessarily because they're from A different background. You could be from the exact same town. But if you think differently and solve your problems together, then you're able to see so much more, so many more options and possibilities. ([Time 0:14:22](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e0200bc0-6c7d-496c-b8ae-52bd027bb374)) - **Pairing A New CEO With A Former Founder Fixed Hidden Control** - A new CEO felt powerless because the founder still influenced operations through long-tenured employees. - Cornelia paired that CEO with a recent founder-exit who revealed how hard leaving is, which helped repair relations and advance company growth. Transcript: Cornelia Choe And to give you an example, I was working with a CEO who took over after the departure of a founder of a company. And we found out that this founder was still controlling some of the operations through their relationship with employees that they've known for a very long time. And the new CEO was extremely angry and was thinking of leaving. And they were really succumbing to fight, flight, or freeze and the fear of the unknown. What's going to happen to this company because I'm not in control and who's the real CEO? And so I paired them up with another founder who had just left their company, who had just sold their company. And the CEO agreed to have a very open mind just to be very curious during the meeting. And the CEO found that it's so incredibly hard to leave a company. This founder felt like they left a part of their body behind. Yeah. And where he was able to really patch things up with their own founder and bring the company to the next level of growth. ([Time 0:15:34](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d78f5af5-8cd6-4774-8fbb-c2408b6fa35b)) - **Include Customers And Suppliers In Perspective Work** - Do include customers and suppliers in regular perspective-gathering because their needs evolve and can reveal adjacent opportunities. - Cornelia urges talking to distributors, influencers, and customers to spot product expansions or emerging disruptions early. Transcript: Cornelia Choe Absolutely, John. I think we're looking at employees, but we're actually looking at the realm of stakeholders in general because customers change and their needs change. And we may be able to fulfill a different need and expand on our product, for example. And so this is a great thing to do in general, but all the more so because things are changing so much in the lives of the customers as well. ([Time 0:17:25](https://share.snipd.com/snip/76de6605-3093-4338-8355-f2ffbcdc1fdd)) - **Translate Perspectives To Avoid Microtranslation Failures** - Microtranslations happen when different leaders assume others see their view, causing misaligned plans like CIOs thinking readiness differs from COOs. - Cornelia advises translating each perspective into terms the other role understands to enable co-creation and alignment. Transcript: Cornelia Choe Give you an example of the survey where it was found that 39% of CIOs believe the company's ready and only 7% of COOs believe that the company's ready. They're looking in completely different directions and their plan of action is very different. So if we bring them together, then they're really able to translate what they are thinking. Because if you bring them together, each one is going to automatically assume that the other sees their perspective. And that's when you really run into trouble. So starting from the basics where each person will explain how they see the situation and explaining it in a way that the other person can understand. And that's when you get the real magic, because when you explain things in the perspective of another person so that they can understand. And so the COO will say, look, you know, I know you have a plan for your technology rollout, but we're actually looking at these specific teams, which are having a problem. How do they fit in your plan? And then to translate what we're saying in a way others can understand, that's when we actually get the co-creation and the communication. ([Time 0:18:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/bd96b773-6a1b-427b-8950-51f4f782f0cb)) - **Autopilot Saves Energy But Magnifies Blind Spots** - People default to autopilot because the brain is energy-intensive, but autopilot worsens blind spots in times of rapid change. - Cornelia suggests listing who isn't at your table and routinely checking in to question assumptions and regain situational awareness. Transcript: Cornelia Choe And a lot of people go on autopilot because it's easier and our brains are actually our most expensive organ because it takes up two percent of our body weight, but 20% of our energy and Our oxygen. So people try to offload and autopilot everything they can because they don't want to rethink it over. But in a time when we have constant disruption and our maps are changing constantly, then we have to question what we do. And it's easier when we bring in curiosity and optimistic fear because then we're willing to question and say, it's not going to be that big of a deal. Let's just get a bit closer and see what we think. Let's talk to these people. Let's call these people in for a meeting Monday morning. Let's make a list of people who aren't at our table and to get to know what they're thinking throughout the week. ([Time 0:20:27](https://share.snipd.com/snip/81f72016-43ae-491a-8fde-edc7895b1d93))