What You Choose to See

So how many red cars did you pass on the way to work today? It's most likely that you won’t be able to answer, not anything beyond a wild guess anyway. You weren’t looking for red cars, so your mind filtered them out. It doesn't mean they weren't there, you just had no reason to notice them. However, if you were explicitly asked to notice them and were given a reason to do so, even something as small as a challenge, a reward, your experience of the same journey would most probably have changed. The traffic won't have changed. The roads would have been the same. But you would have likely seen lots of red cars.

This happens because of the way our brains handle information. Every second of every day, we are exposed to far more sensory data than we can possibly process. So the mind makes its own choices. It uses selective attention to decide which details matter most and which can fade into the background. As soon as something becomes relevant, that filter adjusts and the world reorganises itself around a new point of focus.

You could argue that from there, confirmation bias then also begins. Once the brain starts noticing something, it has a tendency to reinforce the pattern. Each red car then strengthens the sense that they are now appearing more frequently, even though the reality hasn’t changed.

I think this has a direct parallel in leadership, particularly in schools.

All schools are complex, high-information environments. There is just so much going on all the time. Every day presents a mixture of progress, pressure, routine, and unexpected events. Without realising it, leaders can find their attention pulled toward the areas that are loudest or most urgent. A concern raised at the wrong moment, a single challenge, a miscommunication, a difficult interaction with someone, these can occupy far more mental space than they deserve. Not because they are more important, but because they are more emotionally immediate. They need sorting. And right now.

This can then create an imbalance. The mind begins to collect evidence that aligns with the most recent concerns, and before long it becomes easy to think that the challenges define everything. But, just like with the red cars, the rest of what's going on hasn’t disappeared. It has simply been overshadowed by what the brain has decided to prioritise.

It can also work to our advantage. I have seen that when leaders intentionally look for what is going well; strong practice, thoughtful decisions, positive interactions, staff who quietly excel, ambitious practice, the view changes. The picture becomes fuller and more representative of the real organisation, not just the busy parts of it. This isn’t an attempt to avoid challenge. It's about holding the whole truth, not just the most immediate truth.

This shift can have a cultural impact too. What leaders notice consistently tends to grow and amplify naturally. When strengths are acknowledged people lean into them. People and teams feel seen and valued. Everything gradually aligns around what is working rather than being shaped by what is not. And that's what we all want, isn't it? To celebrate the successes.

In schools, staff work with intensity, carry emotional load, and often move from one task to the next without time to reflect on what just went well. How often do you hear people just share that something went even better than expected? Leaders who notice the positives help with this. They make the strengths of the school visible, not because they weren’t there, but because someone chose to highlight them.

The red cars were always on the road. The difference came from the decision to pay attention to them.

The strengths of a school, the commitment, the professionalism, the successes, are there every day in every school. Choosing to see them doesn’t ignore reality it completes it. And over time, that choice shapes culture and confidence. And that's what we all want for each other, isn't it?