Today, I’m grateful for the parents and educators who subtly pushed me to tap into a vision I’ve carried for more than 30 years.
A few months ago, I had my team at the bank read a leadership article about the importance of zooming out and zooming in—and maintaining a healthy balance between the two. When you’re leading a project or launching an initiative, it’s easy to zoom all the way in: to get deep in the weeds, dialed in on execution, pushing through to get things done. That kind of focus matters. But leadership also requires the discipline to pause, take a deep breath, and zoom out.
Zooming out allows you to see the entire project within the larger ecosystem—how it connects, impacts, and flows. Without that perspective, you can execute perfectly on the small things and still miss the big picture. It’s also why accountability matters—someone has to ensure that the pieces align with the whole.
I remember a conversation a couple of years ago with one of our executives about business intelligence and technology integration. Too often, business units focus narrowly on what they need technology to do for them—without considering how that same technology impacts other areas of the business, the organization’s capacity, or whether it fits the broader system. That conversation reinforced for me how essential it is to balance focus with perspective.
Lately, I’ve been reminded of this truth firsthand across several projects I’m involved in. It’s one of the most critical leadership lessons I try to impart to anyone I coach: You can’t build something enduring if you never zoom out.
Because clear vision requires both detail and distance.