When times are challenging it can be tempting to default to the safety of your own world view. But stepping away to see things from a different perspective will help you to make more informed decisions.

Being able to see multiple viewpoints is both a challenge and an opportunity for leaders and their teams. The key is knowing how and when to lift your head up from day to day to see what’s happening elsewhere.

You might have heard about the dancefloor and balcony analogy. It’s often mentioned in the context of adaptive leadership – an approach where leaders anticipate and adapt to fast-moving, challenging circumstances – like a pandemic.

The analogy is this – if all the action is happening on the dancefloor, the leader needs to know how and when to head up to the balcony to get a fresh view of what’s happening downstairs.

But once you’re up on your balcony (cold drink in hand), you look around and see that there are even more dance floors and balconies around you. These are the other perspectives you need to tap into.

This could get a little confusing though which is where the ‘Three perspectives framework’ can help. By exploring these perspectives leaders will tap into fresh insight and information and take in multiple points of view:

• Self
• Team
• System

Getting a balance between these different views is where we believe the opportunity lies.

If you want to find out more about our leadership models, drop us a line, we’re always happy to talk about leadership, teams, and organisations.

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