14 Jul French Bastille Day!
Today is French Bastille Day! Time to celebrate, right?
If you’re French like me, your current perspective is most likely “of course”. After all Bastille Day sparked the events that would throw out monarchies throughout most of Europe, and reveal Napoleon as the great general who fought to liberate France from invading European armies whose kings refused the ideas of the French Revolution.
But wait! If you’re from other parts of Europe, your perspective may be very different. Napoleon in fact set Europe ablaze, creating distress and misery everywhere, triggering wars that lasted for close to 20 years, killing anywhere from 3 to 7 million soldiers and civilians in the process.
Both perspectives are good and valid. It depends on which side of the mirror you’re looking at.
Leaders should always consider different perspectives when assessing a situation or discussing with people on their team.
It is even more important in a multi-cultural environment.
Understanding a challenge or someone’s statement from the position of another person helps you make better decisions.
This is because considering different opinions creates new perspectives of the same topic.
I apply that perspective approach a lot when working with sales people.
There is a point where I put a sales hat or a client hat and I am asking myself “if I were the client, what would I want from this finance team?”
Very often, I come up with a much better understanding of the problems clients are trying to solve. Then, putting my finance hat back, I can help them.
What do you think? In which situation do you see yourself consider several perspectives?
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