Two Low Scores, One Problem: The Seams
For 7 weeks we walked the dimensions one at a time — Self-Management, Executive Presence, Results, Communication, Credibility, Relationships, Visibility. 7 gauges on one panel, each one circular, each one feeding the others. This week we look at what nobody's score report shows: the seams — the places where one dimension hands off to another, and the handoff tears.
Here's the pattern I see in coaching, over and over. A leader pulls up their 7 scores and goes straight to the lowest number. They work it. It moves a little. Nothing else changes. Because the problem was never one gauge — it was the seam between 2 of them.
Results and Visibility, low together: that's not 2 gaps, that's the Invisible Achiever — the work is excellent and nobody above the work knows it. Relationships and Communication, low together: the People Pleaser — warmth everywhere, signal nowhere. Credibility and Executive Presence: the Technical Leader — unquestioned inside the specialty, invisible one inch outside it.
Every seam has a name, and the names matter, because a seam you can name is a seam you can work. The move isn't to work both dimensions harder. It's to find the single handoff that's torn and repair that — because closing one seam moves both numbers.
That's the whole economics of it: seam work pays double. So here's the week: each day, one seam, one archetype, one repair. And one diagnostic to start you off — pull your 2 lowest scores right now. Are they adjacent in how you actually operate?
Do they show up in the same meetings, the same relationships, the same silences? If yes, you're not looking at 2 weaknesses. You're looking at one seam wearing 2 costumes. Name it this week. The framework — all 7 dimensions and all 7 seams — is in The Right Altitude.
The Right Altitude Field Guides — one dimension at a time. therightaltitudebook.com/the-field-guides
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