At Growth By Design, we believe intentional choices lead to impactful growth, whether you’re shaping a thriving organization or a meaningful life. Here, we provide the practical information, tools, and frameworks to get you there. Today we’re furthering our discussion on the reticular activating system and applying it to leaders. We’ll discuss how this powerful system shapes what leaders see, how it impacts their leadership effectiveness, and share tips on how to leverage this system for maximum effectiveness.
Building on what we talked about last week, every leader walks into work with an invisible filter over their perception; biologically, that filter is the same reticular activating system that keeps you awake and focused. Functionally, it behaves like a mental sorting hat, spotlighting certain behaviors, metrics, and moments, while letting others slip past unnoticed. Super helpful to get things done, surely, but super dangerous if left unchecked.
If you quietly believe “my team is underperforming,” your RAS tunes itself to mistakes, missed deadlines, and awkward comments in meetings. If you believe “this group is scrappy and learning fast,” you’ll still see the issues but your attention dwells more on progress, effort, and coachable moments (hello growth mindset!).
How Beliefs Become Performance
The combination of RAS filtering and confirmation bias can turn a leader’s assumptions into a self‑fulfilling prophecy. Because you’re selectively attending to evidence that supports your view, your feedback, tone, and decisions begin to match that filtered reality and shape how people show up. Let’s look at this in action:
“My team isn’t competent. I must double-check everything.”
- Primed with this belief, you naturally catch errors, near‑misses, and undone tasks first and interpret them as character flaws instead of process gaps. You may respond with tighter control, less delegation, and more criticism, which undermines psychological safety and reduces initiative…ironically creating more visible failures.
“This team can figure things out. I am here to support them when needed.”
- Here, you still see problems, but your RAS is more likely to catch signs of learning, perseverance, and small wins. You tend to ask coaching questions, invite ownership, and celebrate improvement, which nudges people toward taking responsibility and experimenting more.
Across a whole organization, these micro‑filters accumulate: what leaders repeatedly notice and talk about becomes “how things are around here.” Change starts by first changing the lens through which you perceive. Change the filter, and over time, the culture you experience starts to shift with it.
Practical Ways Leaders Can Re‑Train Their RAS
This is deliberate work – work that I personally commit to every morning and throughout the day in moments where I need to show up thoughtfully. Here are a few steps you can take to take charge of your RAS, instead of letting it stay in charge of you.
Choose deliberate lenses for your team
- Pick 1-3 lenses you want to see your team through (for example: “learning‑oriented,” “resourceful,” “committed to the mission”). Write them at the top of your notebook or daily planner so your RAS treats them as important and starts tagging real‑world evidence that fits. I write my lenses 25 times each morning to really prime my brain for what lens I will be looking through of which I feel is best suited for the outcomes I desire.
Run “evidence audits” in both directions
- When you catch yourself thinking “they’re not strategic,” pause and ask: “What evidence supports this, and what evidence contradicts it?” For one week, challenge yourself to document at least one instance per person that disproves your most limiting belief about them; you’re training your RAS to notice disconfirming data as well.
- Quick tip & anecdote: You can do this on the personal side too! Leveraging the RAS audit is a relationship super power.
Re‑design what you track and talk about
- Because the RAS follows focus, whatever you regularly measure and discuss becomes the center of your attention. For tangible outcomes, pair your lagging metrics (revenue, output) with leading indicators like learning experiments run, feedback given, or cross‑team help offered so your brain starts highlighting those behaviors too. For softer outcomes on team performance, discussing the areas to strengthen upon is a proven tactic for increasing performance (see StrengthsFinder, my favorite assessment!).
Use questions to shift a room’s filter
- In meetings, the first question sets the collective focus: “What went wrong?” trains everyone’s RAS on defects; “What did we learn, and what will we try next?” shifts attention toward growth. Over time, people start walking in already primed to notice insights and initiatives, not just problems. You want this type of thinking even when problems aren’t obvious. Nurturing a culture of continuous growth (i.e., your competitive advantage, friends) requires curiosity to thrive in moments of joy and disappointment.
Practice “opportunity scans”
- Before 1:1s or team reviews, take 60 seconds to ask, “If this person were about to have a breakout year, what early signs might I see today?” You’ll be surprised by how often your RAS serves up small but meaningful indicators of readiness you would have otherwise glossed over. This primer helps you then lead someone up versus manage them down.
I implore you to give your RAS attention. By acknowledging how powerful your RAS is creating your perceived reality, you’re positioned to leverage this neurological function in your favor and start seeing real results. Not by magic, but by deciding to think and thus behave differently in a manner that aligns with your desired outcomes.
I’ll say it again: You are not controlled by your environment. You are controlled by what you notice in your environment.
What you repeatedly point out becomes what your people repeatedly see. How the biology of selective attention and the psychology of confirmation bias converge in leadership is the responsibility of every leader to manage. When you let your RAS run you, you lead with judgment, bias, and tunnel vision. When you learn to run your RAS, you lead with curiosity, expansiveness and ultimately, more effective impact. It is my hope that this brief overview gives you enough to better leverage your brain for bigger and better results.
Onward and upward!
Katie
A few of my favorite resources on RAS for my fellow extra credit friends
- Books
- Videos
- Research
Growth By Design 
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