Almost all of us are convinced that we are navigating a solid, objective world of circumstances and events. We look at the market, our teams, or global trends, and we believe we are seeing them exactly as they are. We operate under the assumption that our mind is a high-fidelity camera lens, simply capturing footage of reality, perhaps applying a wide-angle or macro filter here and there, but ultimately recording the “truth” happening outside of us.
This assumption is a dangerous blindspot.
Behavioral science tells us that the “objective world” is only available to us through the filter of our cognitive biases, beliefs, and emotional state. We are not cameras passively recording events; we are pattern-recognition machines running a complex, generative algorithm.
The Algorithm of Perception
When we encounter an event, we don’t just file it away. We interact with it.
If you are a camera, you take a picture, and it’s done. The best you can do is edit the picture after the fact. But because you are a conscious being, your perception acts more like a generative algorithm. The moment you fixate on a specific type of event – a risk, a flaw in a colleague, or a negative economic signal – your internal algorithm logs your interest. It says, “The user is engaging with ‘Crisis.’ Let’s prioritize more evidence of ‘Crisis’ to validate this model.’ This is an oversimplification, but you get the idea.
This creates a cascading reality:
- You perceive a stimulus that activates a specific thought process (e.g., “This project is failing”)
- Because that thought is now active, your reticular activating system (your brain’s filter) scans the environment for corroborating evidence.
- You inevitably find a second and third piece of evidence that fits the pattern.
- Now, it is no longer just a “thought.” You have three data points. It feels like a hard trend. It feels like reality.
Confusing Data with Narrative
The critical misstep happens when we look at this accumulation of evidence and say, “Look at reality! It is undeniable.”
We overlook the fact that the “reality” we are seeing is a curated feed produced by our own attention. Just as a generative algorithm feeds you more of what you engage with, your brain feeds you more of what you dwell on.
If you believe your industry is dying, you will spot every article, every failed quarter, and every grumpy customer that proves the industry is dying.
You are not seeing the industry; you are seeing your bias toward the industry projected outward.
Awakening Meta-Cognition
This is not about denying that events happen. And this is not about toxic positivity or burying your head in the sand.
Awakened Leadership involves cultivating a meta-skill that separates you from the rest of the crowd: The ability to continuously audit your narrative despite apparent evidence.
When a narrative starts to build, whether it is organizational panic, distrust of a partner, or imposter syndrome, you can pause. You can ask some version of:
“Is this the whole truth, or is this a feedback loop I have created by over-indexing on a specific data set?”
Instead of playing a victim of circumstances, you can operate from a space of architecting your attention.
If you remain unaware of your internal algorithms, you risk becoming amplifiers of chaos rather than of clarity. You will mistakenly believe that you are solving problems, when in fact, you are often just reacting to your mental feedback loops.
The most critical work a leader does happens before a single strategy is written or a decision is made. It happens in the silence of their own processing. This is where having a thought partner becomes important – to create that silence, and to identify what is not obvious to oneself.
Our most valuable resource is not our time or our capital; it is the quality of our awareness. We must remember that we are not just reporting on the weather of the world; to a great extent, we are the ones deciding which way the wind blows, by contributing to it.
I invite you to be an Awakened Leader – to be conscious of what is happening within you, and how it influences everything around you.
