Three competencies that help animals survive and we need them too..

While there can be a list of competencies and traits leaders need to exhibit, these three are basic competencies that could help you succeed.  Having addressed and worked with large number of mid-level and senior leaders in the last twenty years, I feel these three are the most important competencies that make a difference. I am going to briefly explain Sensing, Sense Making and Sharing, the three competencies that are useful for everyone.

1. Sensing:  

It is the process of being aware of what is going on with you both internally and externally. It can be instinctual, emotional and intellectual. Sensinginvolves what we are able to take in using the six senses. It is the competency of being aware of the world around us. 

We all have perceptual constraints that distorts our sensing ability.  These constraints are “our network of unexamined ideas, beliefs, biases, social and cultural embeddedness, and taken-for- granted assumptions about the world, others, and ourselves. These perceptual constraints limit and shape our perception. 

Core to this competency is the ability to see “reality” as objective as possible and as free of our own biases as possible. 

Now you know when people say I misread the situation or misinterpreted the situation, it's a case of sensing gone wrong. Only if you have sensed the data, the emotions and intent of people, you can make sense of the data. When you are problem solving you will experience sensing and sensemaking as a liner process one following the other. Interestingly in quick decisions you take, sensing and sense making happens so fast and together, you will not experience a liner process many a times. 

In day today life, you use sensing to collect data on customers, employees, to understand the direction of your organisations, the mood of your coworkers, your manger etc. 

2.Sensemaking:

Once we have the data through sensing, we need to make sense of the data and this is what I call sensemaking. It is the process of creating situational awareness and understanding in situations of high complexity or uncertainty. The process of creating insights from the data we sensed. Creating insights is not just understanding the data, it is making sense of the patterns, connections and underlying structures. 

It is using a combination of knowledge and experience to organize information and draw hunches, conclusions, and interpretations. Unlike analytical thinking, which is purely logical, sensemaking involves intuition, imagination and a healthy tolerance for ambiguity. 

Sensemaking can mean learning about shifting markets, customer migration, or new technologies based on the data you have sensed. It can mean making sense of  the culture, politics, and structure of a new venture or about a problem that you haven’t seen before. You might try and make sense and create insights on why a previously successful business model is no longer working.  Sensemaking helps us to create our insights and theories based on the context. People are interested hear your insights and hypothesis than looking at the data that you collected. 

3.Sharing:

It is the process of expressing or communicating an idea, a thought or an emotion. This skill is important to influence others, enrol others into a common dream, and convince others. Many a time, you are good at sensemaking but fails to influence others because you are not effective while sharing your concepts. It is difficult to inspire others with a shared vision if you are not good at expressing. 

Effective sharing can be done:

-Physiologically: Is the verbal communication aligned with what the body is communicating? As we know communication and expression have a large nonverbal component. 

-Emotionally: the mental state of the communicator.

-Content: the body of what is being communicated. The way that it is structured, the relevance of the information for the target group.

-Clarity: the ability to express an idea in a concise, clear and compelling way.

-Conviction: Believing in and meaning what you say.

Think about your ways of sensing, sensemaking and sharing and how you could improve these three skills that could have a huge impact on your career. I  called thee competencies basic because these are the competencies that make an animal survive in wild too.