Leadership - Importance of Perspectives

Over the last couple of weeks I have been “re-awakened” to the power and importance of perspectives. We all have known and witnessed the ah-ha that happens when we see something or someone in a way that we haven’t seen them before. Or when we learn something about someone or ourselves that we just never realized. We see a new or more complete “picture” and we can appreciate a person or situation in more detail.

I say this is a “re-awakening” because we all know that it is important to look at situations and people from different perspectives or angles to get a better understanding. We often get so caught up in the day-to-day activities that we forget to take the time to look from different perspectives. We explore any given situation from our “standard viewpoint”. In an odd sort of way I was reminded how simple yet important changing perspective is while I was looking at our garden one morning for ripe tomatoes. I walked into the garden looking intently for bright red flashes among the full leafy vines and green tomatoes. Of course I spotted a few and picked them. I actually thought that I had done a fairly good job of getting all the ripe ones. It wasn’t until I changed perspective, walked all around the plants and looked at them from several angles, that I spotted more ripe ones than I had already picked. I literally started to laugh at myself, thinking wow, this is just like many organizations! How often do we as leaders look at our organizations and think, we know our people, we know what their strengths are and what they are doing, yet we don’t really know them or what they want to contribute until we change perspective and look with “new eyes” or new perspectives. How often do see our customers and think “I know what they want” without really listening, or hearing them to understand what they are really want?

Our recent work with two different groups heightened my awareness of the importance of perspectives.

One group of people we were working with was an in-tact team that works together on a daily basis. We were doing some teambuilding work with this group which included having each of them fill out their Myers-Briggs type indicator. We discussed the individual results with the team and enabled them to appreciate the differences in their personality types. This helped them understand how their differences contributed to, or detracted from, the total team accomplishment. What the team learned was truly amazing. Their understanding of each other deepened to a point that they can now leverage their differences to be much more effective and efficient! They also had an ah-ha moment when they realized how their strengths could be aligned so that everyone might be working where they were using their strengths to compliment each other. They also learned how to present ideas to people who looked at situations entirely differently than they did.

Similar experiences occurred in the second group, executives in an educational setting. They were not an in-tact team, but rather executives from different organizations who are in an executive education program. They are divided into three study groups and they have been working together as study groups every other weekend since January. They are half way through their program at this point. Over the three day intensive leadership development program, these executives were exposed to a variety of perspective experiences. They were given an opportunity to know themselves in ways they had not experienced before, how they work in teams, how they deal with conflict, and what is to be their legacy of leadership. After each module, they were asked to share what they appreciated about the experiences and their colleagues. They were given time to reflect and look at each other and the situations they were thrust into, from a variety of perspectives. They shared their perspectives with each other. Often times they did this with their ears open and their eyes closed, just to enhance the perspectives and the learning. In some cases they were asked to listen and intentionally not respond, just listen and reflect on what they heard. For them, this was a new perspective – to listen and absorb, but not respond. What they shared later was how much they learned by not responding right away. They reported that they actually listened and gained new insights, new perspectives, by the “required reflection”. How refreshing, yet how difficult in our fast paced, we want everything immediately world.

How would your organization benefit by your taking some time to reflect, to “listen with new ears”, to “see with new eyes”, to “look from new perspectives”? How would your organization or your relationships be enhanced by opening up perspectives? How could you use perspectives to see a more complete picture? As a leader, how might you help your organization expand its perspectives to enhance and grow your business? How might you as a leader, challenge your perspectives and open up to see the full potential within yourself and your people?

Until next time, enjoy the bounty and beauty that comes with changing perspectives!