We often hear the advice: take a helicopter view. Rise above the detail. Step back. Be fiercely objective. It’s familiar guidance in research, leadership, and personal development — the belief that clarity comes from distancing ourselves from the tangle of specifics.

But the more deeply I reflect on this idea, the more apparent it becomes that pure objectivity — the clean, unfiltered vantage point we imagine — doesn’t really exist.

Not because we aren’t trying hard enough.

But because we are human.

Every one of us carries a unique constellation of experiences, beliefs, assumptions, and unconscious biases. They shape how we interpret the world long before we have a chance to “zoom out.” They determine what we notice, what we ignore, and the stories we instinctively attach to situations.

To insist we can fully remove ourselves from this inner landscape risks hiding its influence rather than illuminating it.

Objectivity, in its truest and most ethical form, doesn’t require us to deny bias. It asks us to recognise it.

It asks us to name the lenses through which we see.
To be transparent about our own positioning.

To acknowledge the forces — personal, cultural, relational — that shape our perceptions.

This isn’t a flaw in our perspective.
It’s a strength.

When we become aware of our biases, they lose their power to operate unnoticed. When we understand how we are shaped, we gain the capacity to step back with greater clarity, not less. Awareness becomes the anchor that allows us to hold critical distance without pretending we stand outside our own humanity.

This is the quiet revolution at the centre of the work I do: awareness as a form of power.

Not the loud kind.
Not the heroic kind.

But the grounded, steady kind that transforms how we lead, relate, and make sense of complexity.

True clarity doesn’t come from standing above the landscape.
It comes from knowing the contours of our own inner terrain.

It’s slow work.
Deep work.
Transformative work.

And it’s available to all of us.



Reflection for you:

Where might acknowledging your own assumptions or biases actually increase your clarity, rather than compromise it?

If this speaks to you…

I’d love you to join the conversation. Share your thoughts in the comments — or if you’d like more reflections like this, you’re warmly invited to join my mailing list for weekly updates and insights.

Your awareness is a power. Let’s explore it together.