Future of Work Skill “Lead With Multiple Perspectives”

The future of work requires leaders who have ‘new’ skills and ‘upgraded’ skills including the ability to lead with multiple perspectives.

When I present my keynote, “The Future of Work Is Now – Are You Ready?” I show a slide that helps to demonstrate the multiple perspectives ability. The slide is an optical illusion of faces – there are over fifty faces in the image and then there is the overall image.

The visual example of what it is like to have multiple perspectives is helpful however its not enough.

I have created the ‘five’ lenses of multiple perspectives and I want you to think of these lenses as if they are ‘five’ different pairs of glasses and each pair of glasses gives you access to see something that you could not see before.

The five lenses of multiple perspectives are:

1. Protector
2. Feeler
3. Seeker
4. Connector
5. Creator

The protector lens is the perspective that seeks to confirm your or your identity. When a leader is looking through the protector lens he or she is looking to confirm his or her truth. This lens is important because it is foundational to self identity.

If a leader is coming from this single perspective he or she will limit the potential for authentic connection with others. This perspective alone will seek to reinforce your personal power.

The feeler lens is the perspective that seeks emotional connection. When a leader is looking through the seeker lens he or she is paying attention to his or her own emotional state  while recognizing the emotional state of others.

The feeler lens is important in that an emotional perspective is vital to building trust.

Remember the Maya Angelou quote:

“People may not remember what you say but they will always remember how you made them feel”.

The seeker lens is the ‘what can I learn from this’ lens and the leader is seeking to learn more about self and others in every interaction and situation.

The seeker lens comes from less ego and more of a ‘student’ mentality – there is always something to learn.

The connector lens looks to find ‘what are the common factors’ – the questions of this focus is on what do we have in common and what do we each want?

The connector lens allows the leader to value connection and ‘we’ over the ‘me’ of the protector lens.

Lastly there is the creator lens. When a leader wears the creator lens he or she is consistently bringing a creative approach to all people and all scenarios.

The creator perspective approaches all as creative opportunities.

Ideally a leader has access to all five of these perspectives and uses them in all relationships.

In my experience many leaders come from maybe two of the ‘lenses’ and could expand his or her success by mastering all five of the perspectives outlined.

I will share more in future blog posts on the depth of each perspective as well as some case study examples. Stay tuned…..