Attunement: The Overlooked Leadership Skill That Transforms Difficult Employees into High-Impact Allies

David Cicerchi
2 days ago
5 min read

By David Cicerchi, Leadership Aperture Coach

Have you ever had a team member who is absolutely brilliant at the details—executing flawlessly, hitting deadlines, pushing projects forward—but who also criticizes people when things don’t go well? Someone who takes credit for everything that goes right and blames others when it doesn’t? Someone who creates a kind of toxic team culture without even realizing it?

You might look at this person and think: He’s not a team player… but he’s so good at what he does. What do I do with that?

This is exactly the kind of challenge where the Leadership Aperture model, developed by the telos institute as part of their Vertical Frontier leadership program, becomes invaluable.

Let me paint the picture a bit more.

When a Team Member Is Stuck in a Narrow Aperture

One of my clients, Kathy, faced this exact situation. And it might be your situation too.

She had a direct report who excelled tactically—deep expertise, strong execution, extremely capable in his own silo. But he could not see the bigger picture. He couldn’t take in anything beyond his immediate work, and so he said things that provoked conflict or put down others. He was stuck in what we call a narrow aperture.

In the narrow aperture:

The time horizon is short.
The focus is highly tactical.
Identity and self-worth are tied to personal performance.
Success is “mine,” and mistakes belong to other people.

In the vertical development world, this often aligns with what we call a Skill-Centric perspective—brilliant within a domain, but unable to integrate across domains.

And for a leader, this creates a dilemma. You can’t—and shouldn't—fire someone just because they’re operating from a narrow aperture. But you also can’t let their narrowness compromise the team’s culture or performance.

So what do you do?

This is where attunement comes in. You need to meet them where they're at, and put them where they can thrive.

Step 1: Awareness—Recognizing Your Aperture

Before anything else, we start with awareness.

Kathy had a wide aperture:

She saw the whole system.
She cared about interdepartmental collaboration.
She held the long-term strategic vision.
She could see how everyone impacted everyone else, and wanted to support a learning culture.

She wanted her direct report to operate at that same aperture—but she couldn’t force that on him. And she realized that her frustration was coming from trying to make him see a bigger picture that he simply could not see.

Awareness is noticing: “Oh, I’m operating with a wide aperture… and he’s not.” So, it's important to first look at what aperture we're operating from.

Only then can we effectively move to attunement.

Step 2: Attunement — Meeting Others Where They Actually Are

Attunement is the heart of Leadership Aperture work, and something that is mostly absent from other leadership coaching models.

It means asking: “What is their aperture right now?”

In this example, he was operating with a narrow aperture:

He could only work within short-term goals.
He identified strongly with his expertise.
He saw success and failure as personal.
He blamed others to protect his identity.
He couldn’t see the system, so he couldn’t see the impact of his behavior.

Attunement means appreciating that:

His aperture has served him to stand out from the crowd.
His expertise is valuable in his domain.
His accomplishments are real and tangible.

His aperture has incredible gifts that cannot be overlooked. Many people never develop deep expertise and instead rely on conformity or passive participation. In contrast, he has carved out specialized skills, taken ownership of his domain, and distinguished himself through execution. At the same time, this strength has natural limits—not because he lacks motivation or goodwill, but because his current developmental capacity does not yet allow him to integrate beyond his immediate sphere.

We cannot shame or coerce someone into a wider aperture; we can only meet them, support them, and create the conditions for growth.

So how did Kathy do that?

She kept his scope tight. In team meetings, she framed his contributions clearly. She didn’t ask him to think 3–5 years out. It was about quarterly goals and weekly milestones. She tailored feedback to his aperture level.

She focused on:

Clear goals
Specific execution expectations
Boundaries around his influence
Private one-on-one coaching to support effective interpersonal communication

She stopped expecting him to lead cross-functionally when he was not yet able to do so. And the resistance she experienced dissipated as he felt seen, appreciated, and compassionately guided to where he can thrive. Over time, Kathy noticed that her direct report began to respond more openly to feedback, their own relationship improved, and the tension on the team eased as roles and expectations were clarified.

She started to see him not as a nuisance but as a key ally in the organization, and to appreciate his direct—no sugar coating—communication approach as a breath of fresh air.

That is what happens when we attune to our team members.

Step 3: Alignment — Bringing the Whole System Into View

Alignment asks: “How do I bring this person into better relationship with the system?” As the leader, you hold the wide aperture. That means you must connect the dots.

Kathy began:

Framing departmental interactions in ways that redirected his participation to specific domains.
Showing how one team’s actions affected another.
Guiding conversations to highlight interdependence.
Bridging perspectives between team members that he could not yet see.
Creating scaffolding that gradually exposed him to broader viewpoints.

Alignment does not mean abandoning the person to sink or swim. It means building the structure that allows them to grow—slowly, reliably, developmentally.

Because here's what the research says:

Range is developmental. The ability to widen one’s aperture cannot be forced. It must be cultivated over time.

This is the leader’s job: to create an environment where different apertures can coexist while the system continues to move forward coherently.

What Leaders Must Remember

When someone on your team is difficult, reactive, siloed, or overly critical, the question is not: “How do I fix them?”

The questions are:

What is my aperture right now?
What is their aperture?
What does the system need, and how do I align us toward that?

The Leadership Aperture practice is to develop:

Awareness
Attunement
Alignment

When leaders build this capacity, they stop fighting their people’s limitations and start coaching from a place of clarity, compassion, and strategic impact.

Ready to Build Your Own Range and Wisdom?

If your organization is facing complexity, silo behavior, interpersonal friction, or inconsistent leadership performance, the Leadership Aperture model may be the missing link.

This is precisely what The Vertical Frontier leadership program from the telos institute is designed to cultivate—leaders who can intentionally widen or narrow their aperture based on what the situation requires.

If this resonates, reach out. I’d love to explore whether Vertical Frontier or Leadership Aperture coaching is right for you or your organization.

🌀 Let’s Talk – Schedule a Discovery Call

Below is the original video that inspired this blog post (assisted by ChatGPT):