WEDNESDAY - JULY 29, 2026

HUMPDAY

Weekly Insight & Inspiration for Purposeful Leaders

THIS WEEK’S FOCUS

The View From Below

Why the vantage point you have isn’t always the vantage point you need.

From the top, you would never know the falls were even there. Some of the most important truths about your team are invisible from where you stand.

The Illusion of the Overlook

A few weeks ago I hiked to Waipo’o Falls in Kaua’i, Hawaii with my family. We followed the rugged trail out along the ridge of Waimea Canyon, and when we reached the top, we stood at the edge of the river and looked out over a stunning view - canyon walls, lush green ridgelines, and a gorgeous blue sky. It was beautiful! It was also incomplete.

Standing at this point at the river’s edge you would never guess that an 800-foot waterfall was thundering down the cliff face just below your feet. There is no hint of it. No sound carries up. No spray catches the light. From the top, it just looks like a canyon where the river simply ends. The falls are entirely, completely hidden.

That is exactly how it can feel to lead from the top of an organization.

The view from your office, your dashboard, your leadership meeting can look calm, orderly, even impressive - while something significant is happening just out of sight, one level down.

The overlook isn’t wrong. It just isn’t the whole picture. And leaders who only ever see the canyon from the rim will make decisions as if that rim is all that is there.

The Descent Changes What You See

To actually see Waipo’o Falls, you have to leave the overlook. You have to hike down, switchback after switchback, the trail narrowing, the temperature shifting, through dense foliage - until you reach a completely different vantage point on the other side of the falls. Only then does the waterfall reveal itself: the full 800-foot drop, the roar of the water, the mist rising as it thunders down the canyon wall.

The descent is what makes the difference. Not a better set of binoculars from the top. You have to hike down and see the falls from a completely different place.

For leaders, the equivalent of the descent is taking the time to experience - to hear and see - what the work is like from your team’s vantage point. Regularly walking your unit (day and night) with curiosity. Sitting with your front line, asking the charge nurse, tech and new hire what their day actually looks and feels like. It is doing something with what you hear from them, not just collecting information. It is trading the dashboard view for the unit-culture view, even when the data dashboard looks just fine.

The people closest to the work are already standing at the vantage point you need. They can see the falls. Your job is to go down and stand where they are standing - not to ask them to describe it to you from a distance.

Different Vantage Points Reveal Different Truths

Here is the part that’s easy to miss: the view from the top of the canyon and the view from below the falls are not in conflict. They are not competing versions of the truth. They are both real. They are both partial. And neither one, alone, tells you what you actually need to know.

A leader who only trusts the top-down view mistakes a data dashboard for a healthy workplace. A leader who only trusts the ground-level view can lose sight of the broader canyon - budget realities, system-wide priorities, the bigger shape of things. The goal is not to pick one vantage point over the other. It is to hold both, intentionally, and let each one correct the blind spots of the other.

Perspective is not something you already have simply because you are positioned above it. Perspective is something you go and gather, deliberately, from more than one place.

The best leaders I know treat every vantage point - their own included - as one honest but incomplete angle on the truth. They stay curious about what the canyon looks like from a place they have not yet stood.

3 PRACTICES FOR LEADING CHANGE

1. Go where the view is different. Round on a unit, shift or department you don’t usually see. Let the setting itself surface what a report never would.

2. Ask what is unseen from where you stand. Ask your team directly, “What am I missing from where I stand”. Then listen without defending your viewpoint.

3. Hold your own vantage point loosely. Treat your own perspective as one honest angle, not the full picture. Actively seek the vantage points that complete it.

A Final Thought

The overlook from the river at Waimea Canyon isn’t a bad place to stand. It’s simply not the only place. The leaders who are remembered for truly understanding their teams are the ones willing to leave the rim, make the descent, and let a different vantage point change what they thought they already knew.

Your title gives you a view from the top. Your willingness to descend determines whether you ever see the beauty of the falls.

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This week deliberately take a vantage point you don’t usually take - a different unit, a different shift, a seat in a meeting you don’t normally attend. Ask, “What does this look like from here?” Then really listen.

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I’d love to hear from you. Please reach out and share if you found this insight helpful, if you’d like to talk about it more, or if there’s a topic you’d like to see in a future Humpday. Stacie@LumisLeadership.com

~ Stacie

The “Humpday” was an e-mail originally created by a great leader and mentor - Marc Strode. He used the Humpday to bring insight and inspiration to his team every week. With his permission and at his request to Keep the Spirit - the Humpday lives on. Marc, thank you for being a leader worth following. Despite your love for camels, you truly are the GOAT!