Perspective-taking is valuable for leaders because it reveals not just how others think, but why – expanding your understanding when complexity demands it. Multiple viewpoints provide the comprehensive picture needed for sound decisions.
To effectively gain insights from diverse perspectives:
Understand your own perspective first. Knowing how and why you formed your viewpoint helps you appreciate how others developed theirs.
Explore the “why” behind each perspective. After identifying stakeholders and their level of impact, ask each for their views and reasoning before sharing yours – this minimizes the pressure or convenience to simply agree with you.
Connect perspectives to generate insights. Help stakeholders see relationships between different viewpoints, and link them to your business goals and values. This sharpens thinking, enabling a beneficial shared understanding to emerge. Once it does, ask stakeholders to confirm how it benefits the situation at hand.
How are you generating insights from the perspectives you’re gathering?