The Only Colour on the Platform: A Leadership Presence Lesson

Most leaders can point to a moment when they noticed everyone in the room had arrived at the exact same read within minutes, and treated the speed of that agreement as proof it was correct, when more often it's evidence that nobody tested their own instinct before falling in line with everyone else's, the workplace equivalent of an entire train platform dressed in identical black puffer jackets on an ordinary Tuesday morning. Leaders who've built a career reading rooms accurately are just as prone to this shortcut as anyone else, which is exactly what makes it worth catching.

That was the scene that prompted this piece: a commute where the only colour on the platform turned out to belong to the one person running her own read of the morning rather than reaching for whatever was already in rotation. Reading seasonal trends professionally means noticing this kind of thing quickly, and the convergence on that platform wasn't really about fashion. It was about the distance between a genuine decision and an unexamined default, and how rarely anyone can tell the two apart without something forcing the comparison.

The piece sets out four filter questions used with clients every season, built originally for wardrobes and just as useful for anything else that has become a habit: strategy calls, leadership positions, the meetings where everyone seems to agree a little too fast. Leaders who recognise the pattern, arriving somewhere already dressed for the role they just left, adopting an approach without meaning to, agreeing because testing an instinct takes longer than going along with the room, will find a practical way to catch it before it costs them anything.

Read the full article on Substack this week:
https://sonyachoilarosa.substack.com/p/deliberate-decisions-leadership-presence