Most leadership development begins with a gap analysis: here’s what you’re missing, here’s what to fix. It’s well-intentioned. And exhausting. The leaders I work with aren’t lacking. They’re experienced, committed, and often already carrying a great deal. What they sometimes lack is a clear, structured language for their own strengths.
That’s where CORE→view comes in.
The tool was created by Sean Smith and Psychonomics, specifically for leaders and those growing into leadership positions, acknowledging how central high-quality one-to-one work is for coaches and psychologists. The methodology matters to me. CORE→view goes far beyond the leadership adjectives we all use.
A different kind of leadership lens
CORE→view is a strengths-based leadership tool built on an unusual foundation: the autobiographies and memoirs of nearly 100 globally influential leaders, analysed for values, leadership style, and how they respond under pressure. The result is a framework that moves beyond generic adjectives to something more honest and more useful.
It explores four dimensions of how you lead, brought together in the CORE acronym:
- C – Character & Integrity: How you stay grounded in your values, especially under pressure.
- O – Orientation & Vision: How you hold direction, meaning and a sense of “where we are going”.
- R – Relational Leadership: How you connect, include, listen and collaborate with others.
- E – Execution & Impact: How you move from intention to action and create tangible outcomes.
Rather than asking you to perform a particular image of leadership, it presents real-world scenarios and asks: what would you most likely do here? The result is a nuanced, positive picture of how you actually lead, instead of how you think you should.
Strengths, cultural efficacy and cross-cultural careers
A growing part of my work is with leaders navigating careers and leadership roles across cultures – moving countries, switching sectors, or leading teams that are spread across geographies and cultural contexts. In such environments, it is not enough to simply “be yourself”; cultural efficacy becomes crucial: being able to act effectively and respectfully in different cultural spaces while staying anchored in your own values.
CORE→view offers a solid foundation for this kind of exploration. By understanding your leadership style through a positive, evidence-based lens, you can start asking:
- How do my strengths travel across cultures?
- Where do they translate well, and where do I need to adapt my expression of them?
- How can I lead in ways that are both authentic and culturally responsive?
Here, the tool is not the destination but a compass, one that helps you navigate complexity with more clarity and confidence.
An invitation
If you are curious about understanding your own leadership style through this kind of strengths-based, scientifically grounded lens, and you feel ready to explore what already works in you as a leader, and how to build on it for positive change in the world, I would be glad to explore CORE→view with you in a one-to-one setting, as an accredited coach in the interpretation and implementation of the CORE->view instrument.
Feel welcome to reach out: https://svetoslavastoyanova.com/contact/
