To see who’s not there

I received my University of Wisconsin alumni magazine the other day in the mail, and in the course of reading an interview with the new provost, Charles Isbell, I was struck by his response on a question about his philosophy of leadership:

To me, these kinds of questions boil down to questions of invisibility. People think of invisibility as, “You’re in front of me, and I don’t see you.” but that’s not the invisibility that matters. The invisibility that matters is that you are not in the room, and I don’t notice your absence. I hope that when I’m asked to make a decision or I’m having a discussion, I notice the people who aren’t in the room as much as I do the people who are.

I am tempted to quibble about not seeing folks when they are right in front of you. That seems to be a very serious problem in its own right, but I take his point. Forcing yourself to always be mindful of not just what and who is at hand, but the needs and perspectives of others you don’t or can’t see in the moment seems to be a vitally important quality one would hope all in leadership positions could cultivate. Quite frankly, that seems like a practice that would benefit everyone. It reminds me a bit of the component of humility that came up a few posts ago. I’m starting to appreciate that that is something that grabs my attention.