Dr. Kim Richardson | drkimleadership.com
I’m at my first big event for the summer and I’m balancing all of my bags to make it downstairs to the conference wing. I look down and notice a trail of wet footprints on the floor. “Where did these wet footprints come from?” Immediately, I smiled. My first thought was simple: Kids are having the time of their lives.
Then as a couple entered the elevator on a different floor, I overheard someone else. “These kids are running all over the place.” A few minutes later, another person noticed the same footprints. “This needs to be mopped up. Where is the cleaning crew?”
That’s when it hit me.
The footprints never changed. The facts were identical. The only thing that changed was the lens through which people viewed them. One person saw joy. One person saw disruption. One person saw responsibility.
The Leadership Connection
As leaders, we spend much of our day interpreting footprints. A staffer walks into a meeting with crossed arms. Another misses a deadline. A colleague becomes quiet.
The observable facts are often small and incomplete. Yet our brains immediately begin creating stories about what those facts mean. And those stories are shaped by our emotions, experiences, assumptions, and beliefs.
This is the heart of emotional intelligence in leadership — recognizing the difference between observation and interpretation.
→ Observation says: “There are wet footprints.” The interpretation says: “Children are out of control.”
→ Observation says: “The teacher has crossed arms.” The interpretation says: “She’s resistant.”
→ Observation says: “A colleague is quiet.” The interpretation says: “They’re angry at me.”
The challenge is that we often react to our interpretations as if they are facts.
“We rarely react to facts. We react to the stories we tell ourselves about facts.”
Character shows up in our willingness to question the story we’re telling ourselves. It takes humility to admit that our first conclusion may not be the only conclusion. It takes curiosity to ask what else might be true. It takes discipline to gather more information before making a judgment.
Our brains are doing exactly what they were wired to do; when there is uncertainty, we fill in the gaps. However, we must lead better than that. When we lead from assumptions, we create unnecessary conflict. When we lead from curiosity, we create understanding. The strongest leaders are not the ones who always have the right answers — they are the ones who understand that every set of footprints can tell multiple stories.
I keep thinking about how easy it would have been to stay focused on my bags and the conference ahead and completely miss what the footprints were teaching me.
Where am I seeing facts but reacting to made up explanations and stories? Where am I leading from my interpretation rather than my investigation? Where might people around me be quietly navigating the weight of a conclusion I drew too quickly? The lens through which we see others often reveals more about us than it does about them.
This week, pay attention to the “wet footprints” in your leadership — the small, incomplete observations that trigger a story.
Before you respond, ask three questions:
→ What am I actually observing?
→ What story am I creating about it?
→ What else could be true?
Choose curiosity before conclusion. You may discover that the situation is entirely different from the story you were about to tell.
- Think of a recent situation that frustrated you. What were the actual facts — and what story did you create around them?
- When are you most likely to jump to conclusions as a leader? What emotions are usually present in those moments?
- Whose story have you been reacting to that deserves a second look?
Emotions and Character are the Soul of Leadership. And the soul of leadership is not revealed in how confidently we interpret what we see — it is revealed in whether we are honest enough to ask if our interpretation is the whole story.
The footprints are never the whole story. Choose your lens wisely.
Rise up and lead.
