As a leader of others, you get to see more than most people. But are you taking advantage of the best viewing spots to acquire the perspective you need to lead with the greatest impact? Are you only looking through a single lens?
One of my pastimes is to digest information about current and historical events. I’m part history buff, part political junkie, and part wonderer about what drives behavior and decisions in people. I use everything I can absorb to continuously refine my own thinking and belief system. I don’t know if I was wired that way from the start of if I morphed into my current orientation about observing this stuff, but I do know I constantly ask the question, “What’s up with that?”
In my career, I only had the very rare occasion to travel out of the United States for work. As a result, my perspective about world events was heavily influenced by domestic data inputs. Though I’ve always been a sponge for information, the lenses I used to see events were limited. And as is too often the case in the American news experience, the perspectives I accessed tended to be binary. Good or evil. Democratic or Republican. Success or failure.
Trying to keep a healthy perspective and consider all possibilities when viewing events through that looking glass is difficult. I consider myself an open-minded person, but when the baseline for understanding begins with an endless array of either-or choices, it can be challenging to see the full picture.
Take the current political environment for example. News has taken the form of a continuous stream of “breaking news” stories about what a candidate said or did and how the other candidate reacted to that. Endless panels of experts parse and debate the words or deeds until they can pivot onto the next topic, and the cycle repeats. These panels continue the rotation until the unfortunate international incident occurs that temporarily takes its place. When the shock from that story subsides we get right back to the binary battles. It is numbing.
After having taken a few international trips in the last few years, I’ve developed a new appreciation for the outside perspective by looking at the events that occur in our country and around the world. I’ve learned about people in different countries beyond their characterized role in the stories that make it through our domestic news filters. Real people who are striving for fulfillment in their lives, trying to improve the lives of people around them, reaching for happiness.
I’ve begun accessing news sources that originate from within those countries. Germany, Nigeria, Iran, India, Turkey, South Africa, Israel. Others. Mobile sites and apps that I now have on my smartphone. I apply the requisite level of scrutiny to the degree of freedom and transparency inherent in the journalism from these cultures. But the value I’ve gained in perspective has been dramatic. I understand events not in a binary manner, but from a circuitous vantage point. I see from multiple angles and through the lenses of varied people. I learn about events and people that don’t make it through those domestic filters designed to determine what is important and what is trivial.
What about you?
As a leader of others, you’re in a similar situation. Perhaps the overwhelming majority of information you get about the person you manage comes from your own eyes and ears. You observe his behavior, make binary judgments about his actions, and build a perspective about him. Perhaps you solicit the final 10% of data from others in your organization. His peers. Other managers. Then you package all of that into an annual assessment of your team member, discuss and debate it with him a bit, and load it into the database as the permanent historical account of his performance. And we call that management.
Just don’t call it leadership.
In order to lead your people as people, you need a broader perspective. You need to step out of your comfortable surroundings and stand in places where you can understand him from new angles. Where you can think of new questions and gain a different appreciation for the decisions and actions he takes. Where you can think of new ways on how you can guide his career, not simply assess him from your office and file your report.
Get to know his customers. Seek out observations from his colleagues. Watch how he interacts with others at meetings. Listen to the questions he asks and gain insights from the understanding he seeks.
Most of all, get to know him as a person. Bring real empathy to your relationship. What does he think about? What is he striving to become? What keeps him up at night?
Leaders do these things. Managers don’t.
In the prevailing management culture of today, swift judgment and decisive action rule the day. Leaders who move quickly with confidence and don’t look back are celebrated. Those who don’t earn the label of indecisive.
I’m not a fan of that culture.
Be the discerning leader who is a full participant in the lives of the people you are guiding by looking at them from different angles. Don’t be concerned about the shot clock. Real understanding happens over time and there is no finish line.
Keep seeking new vantage points. Expand your perspective. Keep learning until you gain full understanding. In other words, don’t stop. Keep at it in the knowledge that understanding is a journey, not a destination.
Lead well.
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