The Window and Mirror Effect

by Chelsea Liu

Quite a while back, I was in the school library and came across a book called Good to Great by Jim Collins. I flicked through and saw a subtitle, 'The Window and the Mirror'. The first thought was of something that happened during primary school. I remember once when I was on the way to school, I came across this car which had reflective windows. It may have been my first time seeing one but it definitely made me curious at the time. I was lucky enough some time later that I came across another one of those cars with its front door open. So I decided to run ahead, first take a look from the outside of the back door and then take a peak from the inside of the opened front door. I think I may have startled the lady on the phone sitting inside. Oops. So a mirror and window in one must have been like “the coolest thing of the week” for me. I was certainly very excited when I got a pair of mirrored sunglasses. Back to the book…

The Window and Mirror is a pattern Collins concluded of Level 5 leaders who are at the top of the Level 5 hierarchy. Level 1 is to be a highly capable individual; level 2 to be a contributing team member; level 3 a competent manager; 4 an effective leader and level 5 an executive. Collins contended that “Level 5 leaders look out the window to apportion credit to factors outside themselves when things go well (and if they cannot find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck). At the same time, they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility, never blaming bad luck when things go poorly.”

So, say a person led a team of people to complete a project which later received both praises and criticisms. They would go back to their office, sit back in their chair facing a window and a mirror. In the mirror, they’d preen in front of it and give themselves the credit for all the “what went wells”; then turn to the window looking out and pointing the finger at the team members to justify the “what went wrongs” whilst thinking what bad luck they themselves had. 

Now here’s a lucky guy. They also had finished a project. Back in the office, they would look in the mirror to ask themselves what went wrong and how improvement would be made; then they’d look out the window to give credit where it is due and think what great luck they had with these team mates.

Considering the sheer unpredictability and invisibility of luck, it was puzzling to see the significant role it played in leadership. But it did. There are all sorts of luck events that happen both good and bad not confined to companies. Of course, bad luck can have the effect of deteriorating a situation. Though it can be turned into an advantage, most often, making you luckier. This may not make sense since “luckier”, even in my general opinion, is a strange and illogical word. To be generally luckier, it would be on the basis of already having luck in a circumstance. However, luck is an external factor that cannot be controlled and is unpredictable. Thus, if you knew that you had a base amount of luck and thought of topping that with a comparative circumstance that has more luck, then the base luck would have been a known, internal factor that could have been taken into account in the first place and not unpredictable, uncontrolled luck. So how does bad luck making you “luckier” make sense? First time round, it indeed was luck behind the scenes. Though by reviewing them and evaluating the possible mitigation measurements, it  not only promotes trust and credibility within the team, but also identifies another factor to be considered next time increasing the number of factors that can be controlled. In sum, short term bad luck is turned into a long term benefit.

Now down at an individual every-day level, the window and mirror effect can still be applied. Self-leadership is a powerful ability that is worth taking time to think about and cultivate. It has little to do with influencing others, just to lead yourself. Procrastination? Always running out of time? No plans? No focus? Then take some time to think about self-leadership. Look out the window. What’s been good? What are you glad with? What factors took you here? Parents, friends, neighbours? Feel free to celebrate, you deserve it. Then come back and look in the mirror. What outcomes weren’t as good? How could you have altered it? What could have been done better? Feel free to write it down, it’ll help a lot.

In summary, the window and mirror effect derived from studies on companies and management can be used to promote self-leadership; reviewing bad luck can make you ‘luckier’. And I couldn’t find that pair of sunglasses. What bad luck! I’ll have to get better at organising.