How to Become a Perceptive Leader – Five 5 Powerful Building Blocks

1. Develop your leadership EQ

The workplace today is ever evolving, with multiple generations making up the workforce, and the ‘command and control’ leadership style is a thing of the past. This approach suggests a low EQ on the part of the leader and will not be tolerated for very long by most employees.

However, there is a solution and a way for leaders to manage their emotions better, regardless of the stress level in any given situation. In our work with TTI Global Leadership, we can measure your EQ (Emotional Quotient) through a comprehensive 60-page diagnostic report.

2. Choose a growth mindset

Let’s start with some context. At the core of the perceptive leader is developing an open mindset, the foundation for any leader who wants to stay on the cutting edge. Choosing a growth mindset means staying open to and considering creative solutions and new ideas.

3. Embrace curiosity 

Where do your interests and questions take you? What are you curious about? What is your team curious about, and do you have a process for listening to and evaluating their ideas?

Hold a brainstorming session (see section 5 in my eBook) with your team and answer the following three questions to prime the creative pump. Don’t worry about the cost or time until you get to the evaluation stage.

1. Where do you think our company is stuck?
2. What possible solutions capable of getting you unstuck come to mind?
3. What one thing would our organization attempt if you were guaranteed to succeed?

Use this exercise to engage your innovation process and evaluate new ideas.

4. Persevere and enjoy the process

Perceptive leaders work hard and smart, consistently investing time and effort over the long haul to learn and innovate. However, the organization stays within its field of expertise, pivoting only for obvious or strategic reasons. I continually learn and refine my products and processes.

5. Balance your risk by deploying the D4G approach. *

The D4G process examines four basic questions corresponding to the four stages of design thinking to take an idea from conception to implementation.

1. What is? Explores current reality.
2. What if? Uses what we learn to envision multiple options for creating a new future.
3. What wows? Make some choices about where to focus first.
4. What works? It takes us into the real world to interact with users through small experiments.

Use the CASCAL behavioral model below to coach and develop your intuitive leadership capabilities while collaborating with your team on innovation efforts.

1. Curiosity leads to generating ideas.
2. Action: develop a disciplined cadence to meet with your team.
3. Sort, evaluate, and validate all the ideas for the final build selection.
4. Connection: stay close to your team through product release.
5. All hands on deck; share with users and anyone who’ll listen!
6. Learn and loop back to more ideas to improve existing products and services.

Confidence in becoming an intuitive leader comes from knowing you are naturally creative, resourceful, and whole and being willing to stretch your comfort zones.

1. Recommended reading on innovation and design thinking.
   1. Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Peter Drucker
   2. The Design of Everyday Things; Don Norman
   3. Solving Problems with Design Thinking; Jeanne Liedtka, Andrew King, Kevin Bennett