The Quiet Work of Leadership Optics.

Leadership is often discussed through familiar themes such as vision, influence, accountability, developing others, and the pursuit of shared outcomes. What is spoken about far less is leadership optics and presentation, and why this matters just as much.

As a supervisor, I am often asked, “Why hasn’t the company done this?” or “Why hasn’t senior leadership spoken to us about this?” when a major change has occurred. The reality is that there are many moving components within a large scale business that not everything can be addressed all the time, and sometimes communication with the frontline gets missed.

That got me thinking. When is it crucial to be mindful of leadership optics, and how can we use that to our advantage? There is undeniably a level of curated performance within leadership. It allows leaders to elicit visibility, control, accessibility, and trust. Being intentional about leadership optics isn’t necessarily inauthentic. It is about message alignment and purposeful signaling. Besides, human perception is far more sophisticated than we give it credit for. You cannot forge integrity.

So when can we be intentional about how we are perceived? And why is it important?

As a general rule of thumb, perception and visibility matter most when substantial business change occurs. However, the quiet work of leadership optics lies in the signaling of everyday behaviours.

Your tone.

Your approach.

What you follow up on.

What you don’t.

These signal what you care about.

There is an opportunity cost to ignoring optics. When a team member doesn’t feel seen, they lose belief in systems and structures. Solutions and projects don’t get proposed because they feel they land on deaf ears. Motivation drops. Performance suffers. Collectively, we have forgone untapped performance potential. It is a blind opportunity cost.

Remember, sound business decisions can be made daily behind closed doors. However, your interactions with individuals are momentary, and they carry disproportionate weight. So make them count.

Jenny Dinh