This blog is authored by members of the Bright Wire expert team. We aim to provide A+ leaders with practical and hands-on resources to take your leadership capabilities even one step higher.
The global health pandemic caused by COVID19 has had insurmountable effects on our world. And we have yet to entirely comprehend it’s impacts or ramifications. However, what we do know is that a continued state of change and ambiguity is certain to remain.
It’s without question that this time of year looks even more different than previous years. Whether it’s changes in back to school, closing out summer vacations (or staycations in some cases), or changes to how we report the fourth quarter, this time of year is a natural opportunity where people find themselves in transition. A time of transition can bring the opportunity to reset, reframe or perhaps understand how you want to approach it.
As executive leadership coaches and leadership development experts, we use this time to focus on perspective. For many leaders, shifting perspective is a key skill and capability that can help maximize self-awareness and emotional intelligence, and it can also help leaders be more intentional, positive and supportive to their teams. For a leader, shifting perspective can create new and stronger results for the future, uncover what might not yet exist and illuminate a clear path to achieving your goals. So how do you shift your perspective?
Leadership in Action | Five Strategic Steps to Shift Your Leadership Perspective
Step 1: Think about one thing that’s changed for you during this time (i.e. business process, team dynamics, technology, etc.).
Step 2: What do you like or what do you find challenging about it?
Step 3: What emotions do you feel when you think about this change?
Step 4: Now shift your perspective on that change. What new perspective do you have?
Step 5: Assess what is different. What actions now become possible, and what is the likely result of those actions?
Consider how this time of year is helping you and your team build resiliency skills, become agile and adaptive, and meet customer needs in a new and innovative way. Consider how leveraging technology is helping you find new ways to build and sustain relationships or how being flexible is contributing to a new way to plan for the future. These are just a few ways you can use perspective shifts to help make this time of year – a time of transition and sustained uncertainty – more effective, more intentional and best of all, more reflective of the complex and uncertain world we are living in.
We like to remind ourselves constantly that perspective has incredible power to help leaders forge through challenges and create an environment where many can be successful.
