episode 19 - the word is presume

In Episode 19 of "The Word is Leadership," Emmanuel unveils the randomly selected word for the week: presume. He draws a distinction between assuming and presuming, emphasising that presumption involves more confidence and evidence.

Illustrating with a story from his latest book ‘This is Not a Leadership Book’ he recounts a scenario where a high-performance leadership team faced a divergence of opinions regarding the future percentage of advertising going online based on different assumptions,

Emmanuel shows how we need to understand the continuum assuming-presuming-knowing, stressing the challenges of questioning presumptions compared to assumptions and the need for leaders to differentiate between the two.

He highlights the risks of using presume and assume interchangeably, emphasising the importance of clarifying what one thinks they know (presume) and what they do not know (assume). The episode concludes with the question, ‘How often do you know whether you presume or assume before you resume?’