Get Beyond the Limits of Your Knowledge
An Excerpt from Real-Time Leadership: Find Your Winning Moves When The Stakes Are High
There are four categories of knowledge, of what we can know. These are: 1) What do I know I know; 2) What do I know I do not know; 3) What do I (in fact) know but don’t know I know it; and 4) What do I not know that I don’t know.
The first two may seem self-evident, but think through them with regard to a leadership challenge. The third category is a bit trickier, so read it carefully. There’s simply no easier way to phrase it:
What do I not know that I know?
The fourth is the most dangerous and hardest of all, but we will help you with this, too:
What do I not know that I don’t know?
These are not riddles. There are answers to each category, and when you start filling them in, it really helps inform your Vantage Point, or your perspective. We’ll take a quick look at each.
What I know I know.
You are comfortable with your knowledge of the situation. However, still ask yourself whether you are overconfident and overestimating the accuracy of your knowledge, or whether you are not comfortable because you underestimate yourself. Be clear on the limits of your information and expertise.
What I know that I don’t know.
You are informed and self-aware enough to know where your expertise or knowledge base ends. You can then decide if the challenge will need you to have more complete knowledge, and if so, to search for the resources you need to complete the picture. What can get in the way and erode the quality of your Vantage Point is if hubris or ego makes you feel that, if you don’t know something, it’s not important—or that if you feel you should know something, you should hide the fact that you don’t. You need to develop the self-awareness (internal challenge) and courage to own your incomplete knowledge and work to remedy it. Learning to lean with will help you feel more comfortable seeking answers to what you know you don’t know.
What I don’t know that I know.
You aren’t immediately able to access information or wisdom that is untapped inside you. Often, we don’t slow down enough to connect the dots or allow what we know to surface. You may assume the limits of what you know are accurate, but there is usually more to access. If you slow down or switch contexts, new thoughts can surface, activating what had been “preconscious.” Not leaning or leaning back are two ways to access knowledge you don’t know you possess. Close your eyes a moment and ask yourself, “What do I know about (this person, challenge, etc.) that I don’t realize I know?” and see what surfaces.
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Good conversations and provocative questions can help create that “aha!” moment, when what you didn’t know you knew surfaces. It can be startling when someone asks, “If you knew the answer, what would it be?” and a sudden insight pops up.
What I don’t know I don’t know.
To overlook this question is dangerous and can put your project or even your career in peril. But it sounds impossible to manage: How do you take into consideration something you don’t know? How do you get a Vantage Point on something that might not exist? Simple. Ask many people many questions. Look beyond your organization and start scanning everything around you, every conversation, movie, article, or book. There are reliable ways to shrink this space. Your greatest threat here is having a fixed mindset and being overconfident that you always know the score. The key is to be humble about the idea that is unexpected, and to become a magnet for the unknown things that can emerge and completely change your priorities and exponentially expand your Vantage Point. You need to be prepared for that. And the agility work you’ll be doing to access all of this in real time will help.
About The Book
The best leaders, in the biggest moments, know how to read the situation, respond in the most effective way possible, and move forward. You can, too.
The hardest part of leadership is mastering the inevitable high-risk, high-stakes challenges you will face. Whether you're making a split-second decision when your business is knocked sideways or you're finding the best strategy to navigate business-critical long-term circumstances, how can you be in peak form in those most crucial moments?
Leadership coaching legends David Noble and Carol Kauffman show you how with their innovative new framework—MOVE—which equips you with the tactics you need to slow down high-stakes situations before they speed you up. You'll learn to master the moment, generate response options, and quickly evaluate those options before acting. As you get better and better at using the framework, you'll find you can recognize these moments as they arrive, like a great athlete who can read the field as a play unfolds or a great conductor who anticipates what's needed to deliver a great performance.
Noble and Kauffman bring decades of experience coaching thousands of leaders, along with a deep base of research, to show why their unique two-on-one coaching method works and how it's done. The MOVE framework comes to life in these pages through the personal stories of real leaders living through their own crucible moments. Real-Time Leadership is a compelling and demystifying look at how the MOVE framework delivered positive results for them—and how it can for you, too.