For some leaders, it is easy to move through their organization without fully acknowledging how employees experience the workplace. Sometimes that comes from innocent oversight. Sometimes leaders choose not to look too closely because doing so could challenge beliefs the organization has worked hard to protect.
When Leaders and Employees Experience Culture Differently
We use words such as culture as though everyone experiences them the same way. For some employees, culture means clear expectations, real support, recognition, access to opportunity, and the sense that leadership has their back. The word carries a feeling of belonging because that is what they have experienced inside the organization.
For others, the word may feel hollow. It may be associated with instability, exclusion, inconsistent decisions, or a workplace they have learned to endure rather than thrive in. The idea of a strong culture may feel so unfamiliar that leadership’s description seems lost in translation, as though leaders are speaking about a company their employees do not actually work for.
The Difference in Psychological Safety
Psychological safety can carry the same divide. Some employees expect to be heard and given the benefit of the doubt. Others have learned that safety is conditional and must be evaluated from moment to moment. They read the room before speaking, consider who is in the meeting, and remain alert to what could shift. That vigilance rarely turns off, even in settings that are supposed to feel safe.
Two employees can experience the same organization very differently because of their roles, histories, relationships, and positions of power. One employee’s frustration does not erase another’s positive experience. Their struggle also does not make leadership’s confidence in the organization dishonest. Yet leaders can still feel threatened when an employee’s experience challenges what they have believed to be true about their organization.
Perhaps the threat is not that the employee’s account will disprove theirs. It is that the account will require something from them.
The Curse of Knowledge in Leadership
Leaders often fall victim to the curse of knowledge. Once they become familiar with an organization’s culture, values, and shorthand, it can be difficult to imagine how those things might appear unclear or inconsistent to someone else. What feels like common sense at the executive level may be genuinely unclear to someone newer, more junior, or working from a different position in the organization.
Setting that assumption aside requires leaders to recognize that the meanings people attach to ordinary workplace language are shaped by their experiences. Leadership’s understanding of the culture is important, but it is not the only accurate one.
Moving Beyond Leadership Blind Spots
That realization can feel threatening, but it may also be a sign of a maturing leader. Leaders who deliberately seek perspectives different from their own are better positioned to identify blind spots, understand emerging problems, and make informed decisions.
Is that what genuine perspective-taking looks like?
It is not always comfortable. It can disrupt the narrative leadership has carefully built and protected. It challenges the assumption that an executive’s vantage point represents everyone else’s experience. Moving beyond a leadership style built around self-protection requires a willingness to let employees’ experiences genuinely inform decisions.
Listening to Employees and Seeing Differently
When leaders do this well, they begin to see their people differently. They ask better questions and consider more context. They pause before responding long enough to consider another interpretation of the situation.
Moving beyond the curse of knowledge does not mean dismissing what leadership already understands about the organization. It means recognizing that leadership’s experience of the culture has not been everyone’s experience. Once leaders accept that difference, they can begin replacing assumptions with direct questions, employee input, and better-informed decisions.
Takeaway / Action Item: Select one current company initiative and gather direct input from three to five employees affected by it. Ask what is clear, what is creating friction, and what leadership may not be seeing. Compare their responses with the leadership team’s assumptions before deciding what needs to change.
This article was adapted from Michael Wood’s original reflection, “Rose-Colored Glasses,” published by EdgeWood Legacy.