Dear Change Leader,
“I thought I understood what was happening until I talked to someone in HR,” Marcus shared during a recent conversation.
As Director of Operations for a growing tech company, Marcus had been wrestling with persistent delays in product launches. For weeks, he’d been focusing on what seemed obvious: the development team needed better project management tools and clearer timelines.
He’d invested in expensive software, restructured workflows, and even brought in a consultant to optimize their processes. The delays continued.
Then a casual conversation over coffee changed everything. An HR colleague mentioned the team’s stress levels: “Three of your top developers are interviewing elsewhere. They’re burned out from constantly shifting priorities coming from sales.”
Suddenly, Marcus realized he’d been looking at the problem in the wrong way. The delays weren’t about project management—they were about commitments being made to clients without consulting the development team.
Within two weeks of aligning sales promises with development capacity, launches were back on schedule.
The Leadership Blind Spot We All Share
Marcus’s experience illustrates something every leader faces: we can only see the system from where we sit.
Your position in the organization gives you certain insights while creating inevitable blind spots. As you rise through the organization’s ranks, you might think that you will gain a more comprehensive view. However, the reality is that while some things may become clearer, others will remain opaque or even become invisible.
This isn’t a failure of leadership. It’s simply the nature of complex systems. No single perspective, no matter how senior or experienced, can capture the full picture.
Why Multiple Perspectives Matter More Than Ever
In stable times, these blind spots might be manageable. You could rely on established processes, regular reports, and predictable patterns to fill in the gaps. But in today’s environment of constant disruption, what you can’t see can hurt you more quickly than ever before.
The leaders who thrive aren’t necessarily the ones with the best individual judgment. They’re the ones who most effectively tap into the multiple perspectives around them.
Three Approaches to Broadening Your Leadership Lens
Here are practical ways to systematically broaden your perspective beyond your natural viewpoint:
- The Stakeholder Walk-Around
Instead of waiting for information to filter up through reports, actively seek out different vantage points:
- Spend time with front-line staff who interact directly with customers
- Have informal conversations with peers in other departments
- Ask vendors or partners what they’re seeing in the broader market
- Connect with board members or advisors who have outside industry experience
Practical Action: This week, schedule three 15-minute conversations with people whose work connects to yours but who sit in different parts of the system. Ask: “What are you seeing that I might be missing?”
- The Pre-Decision Reality Check
Before major decisions, deliberately seek out dissenting or alternative viewpoints:
- Ask: “Who might be negatively affected by this decision?”
- Find someone who disagrees with your initial approach and understand their reasoning
- Consider: “What would this look like from our customers’ perspective? Our competitors’?”
Practical Action: For your next significant decision, identify two people who would see it differently than you do. Have conversations with both before finalizing your approach.
- The Systems Mapping Conversation
When facing complex challenges, bring together people from different parts of the organization to map connections you can’t see alone:
- Include representatives from multiple departments in problem-solving discussions
- Ask: “How does this issue connect to what you’re experiencing in your area?”
- Look for patterns that only become visible when different perspectives combine
Practical Action: Choose one persistent challenge your organization faces. Convene a 60-minute session with 4-5 people from different departments to map how this challenge shows up across the system.
Your Multi-Perspective Practice
The goal is to be able to make decisions from a fuller understanding of reality. Being curious about other perspectives should support this, rather than leading to ‘analysis paralysis.’
This week, try approaching one current challenge as if you were an investigative journalist rather than the decision-maker. Your job isn’t to have the answer—it’s to appreciate more aspects of the story before you choose how to respond.
Pay attention to what you discover as you seek out perspectives different from your own. Often, the most valuable insights come from the viewpoints you hadn’t thought to consider.
Until next time,
P.S. Sometimes the most transformative leadership conversations happen when you bring together people who usually don’t talk to each other. If you’re curious about how to design these multi-perspective sessions for your team, I’d welcome the chance to explore that with you.
When “Everyone Agrees” But Nothing Changes
You know that moment when you present a strategic direction and everyone nods in agreement? But weeks later, implementation stalls, energy feels flat, and you sense there were concerns people didn’t voice?
That’s psychological safety in action—or more accurately, its absence.
The reality is that the quality of your team’s conversation directly impacts your decision-making effectiveness. When people don’t feel safe to voice genuine concerns, challenge assumptions, or offer alternative perspectives, you’re essentially leading with incomplete information.
This isn’t just about creating a “nice” workplace culture. Psychological safety has measurable impacts on decision quality, productivity, team effectiveness, and yes—retention of your best people.
Recently, I had a conversation about this exact challenge, exploring how leaders can create environments where the real conversation happens in the room, not afterwards in the hallway.
Want to hear the full discussion? Listen to the episode HERE
Because when you’re already working to see challenges from multiple perspectives, the last thing you need is people holding back the insights that could shift everything.
EFFECTIVE CHANGE RESULTS FROM INTENTIONAL LEADERSHIP
We’re a leadership and organization development consultancy. My team and I work with leaders like you to prepare for and lead successful change processes.
Here’s why our clients call us:
- Leadership Coaching: I support leaders as they navigate transitions into new roles or expanded responsibilities.
- Group Coaching and Learning Programs: Bringing groups of leaders together, I facilitate learning experiences and months-long programs that equip people to be effective change leaders.
- Effective Teams and Stronger Organizations: I work with leaders and their teams with tailored processes that increase their effectiveness, building layers of aligned teams that transform organizations.