HAVING PERSPECTIVE ON YOUR PERSPECTIVE
Several years ago I went through a season that was, to say the least, very trying. My wife and I were bordering on disillusionment with an entire way of life that we had put our heart and soul into. As we fumbled around trying to make sense of what just happened in our lives, a strange thing started to happen. Other people that had similar things happen started to come out of the woodwork and they saw things “our way.” They would inevitably say something like “It’s great that you can now see what we see.” In the middle of my extreme pain, I learned what turned out to be a good response. My response was “I do see clearly, the challenge I am having is that I’m not sure I can trust my lenses right now.”
The people that would approach me had let disillusionment take them over and fully change their perspective, which was something that I was not willing to do even though it was very tempting. Quite frankly, it is a simple thing to let a hard event change your perspective instead of holding fast to a healthy perspective and dredging through your soul to realign healthy thoughts and emotions. Several years later now, I’m still dredging.
Through this whole experience I learned one valuable lesson: It is Important to have perspective on your perspective.
Have you ever stopped and thought “What is my perspective made up of?” Certainly your upbringing, your faith, your education, and your relationships play into your perspective. The fact that you and I know nothing perfectly, means that all of us have an imperfect perspective. This is valuable to understand because when we do we tend to do more listening than telling, and we have a tendency to contribute as leaders instead of dominate.
To be clear, not all perspectives are equal and it’s probably not reasonable to deeply examine every perspective. One thing I believe for sure; however, is that it is important to understand your own perspective. Here are some tips for judging the health of your perspective.
1.) Ask yourself ” Who else shares this perspective? Are they prosperous? Divisive? Adding value to others? If you find yourself having a similar perspective to people that you see making a difference then you may be on the right path.
2.) Did you come to your current perspective because of a hostile act, or turbulent times? My observations have been that during times of personal or professional upheaval we are very prone to changing our perspective to accommodate our current feelings. If you perspective has been formed by what you consider to be ill will, being slighted, mistreated, etc then you should ask yourself a gut level question and see if you are changing your perspective to avoid growing through a tough time.
3.) If you look at your perspective, look at the future of where it leads you. Do you see your perspective leaving a legacy? If so, what type of legacy? Does it encourage community, growth, etc? Does your perspective construct people’s lives around you, deconstruct them, or is it neutral ground?
As a Leader, take some time to gain perspective on your perspective. You, and the people you lead will be glad you did.
