April 2024: Peripheral Perspectives - 'PERSPECTIVES'

April 15, 2024

Hello,?Peripheral Thinkers?!

For most of the northern hemisphere, Spring is here. With Spring comes a whiff of fresh hope in the air. As the southern hemisphere moves into Fall/Autumn, excitement begins for cooler weather and changing leaves.

Life is good, and opportunities are plentiful.

Well… That depends on your perspective.

Ready to expand your perspectives?

Let’s go!

SUCCESS IS A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

A Peripheral Perspective Of — PERSPECTIVES

In preparing this month’s newsletter, I researched the top issues facing business leaders for the rest of 2024 and into 2025, from the Harvard Business Review to Inc., Fortune, and Entrepreneur publications. Add reports from McKinsey & Company, Deloitte, and PwC. It’s easy to find “insightful recommendations”—aka opinions.

Some issues are common across the sources, while others are contradictory. No surprise, right? The way you see a situation depends on your perspective.

So why write about what you already know? Because not all perspectives are created equal, but they are all useful. And… Perspectives determine your success or failure as a leader.

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Here’s how to get the most out of each perspective source.

Trusted Perspectives

I assume many of you have a few go-to people or sources you lean on for sage advice: business advisors, industry leaders, and peer groups. These people have often been where you are, know what you’re facing, and remember how they navigated that season in their business.

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If you don’t have advisors, you aren’t alone. A survey by?DDI’s?Global Leadership Forecast found that 48% of leaders want to be educated by an external coach. Yet, according to a?Stanford Graduate School of Business study, more than 70% of CEOs do not receive outside leadership advice.

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Somewhere in those percentages are leaders yearning to be coached. If you are one of them, it’s time to engage with a coach or join a peer group for trusted perspectives.

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To get the most from these resources, immediate transparency is crucial. In good and bad times, share all you are experiencing. Explain what you are seeing, thinking, and doing. Then, ask what you may be missing. “What am I not seeing, thinking about, or doing to lead my business well?”

Your Perspectives

Whether a solopreneur or Fortune 50 CEO, your experiences feed your perspectives as a leader. You use data, business models, best practices, and intuition—to name a few—to guide your company.?

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To get the most out of your personal perspectives, dig deeper into your experiences. Reflecting on simple things like how you learned to ride a bicycle or last weekend’s yard work offers perspectives that apply to leading your business.

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I was 4 or 5. It was a summer afternoon. And I was determined to ride my 2-wheeler myself before my Dad got home from work.

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That afternoon, I experienced lessons about tenacity and gravity. To achieve something you’ve never accomplished before requires a tenacious spirit. And “gravity?” It may not be what you’re thinking. Yes, I fell a lot. But the “gravity” I learned about is that it’s easier to start pedaling on a slight decline and allow gravity to pull you along.

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That summer evening, my Dad’s car pulled onto our street. I pointed my bike down the sidewalk, foot on the pedal, hands on the handlebars. I pushed off and started peddling—balancing, steering, peddling, adjusting...

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Success!

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I categorize that experience as “expansion” because bike riding opened a whole new world I could explore (using tenacity and gravity).

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I’ve used these perspectives about tenacity and gravity differently throughout my career.

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What experiences have you had that need a fresh review for new perspectives?

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Your Team’s Perspective

For those of you with employees—full-time, part-time, contract—you have access to a veritable smorgasbord of perspectives. (Though it’s a tongue-twister, I’ve always wanted to use this phrase in a newsletter. Thanks.)? Some of the best leaders know how to glean new business insights from their staff. However, only a handful find innovative perspectives from their staff. Your people have inspiring perspectives that may change the trajectory of your business when you know how to uncover them.

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To get the most from your team’s perspectives, encourage them to bring all their experiences to their work—not only what they believe is pertinent to their role, your objectives, or the industry—anything and everything they are willing to share. Some of the best ideas are found in your team members’ experiences, such as how they learned to ride a bicycle or what they experienced during their last holiday.

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A simple example is how Chick-fil-A became known for replacing the phrase “You are welcome” with “My Pleasure.” This idea came when one store operator experienced the phrase from a Ritz-Carlton employee. There was a marked difference in the way the store operator felt when, after thanking a Ritz-Carlton employee, he heard their reply, “My pleasure.”

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The store operator shared with other store operators and then the corporate headquarters. Quickly, this differentiating phrase became standard practice in all 3,000+ locations. A new perspective from one store operator took one phrase and made it synonymous with a company.

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New Perspectives

If variety is the spice of life, new perspectives are the fuel of inventive leaders. Lifelong learners. Insatiably curious. Wisdom seekers. Whatever the description, leaders who consistently seek new perspectives outperform their peers and competitors.

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To get the most out of new perspectives, you must seek new experiences. Actively explore new industries around the corner or around the world. Engage with people from other countries and cultures. New perspectives are everywhere, whether in Fiji or around the corner at Fred’s coffee shop.

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In previous newsletters or videos from my keynotes and media appearances, you’ve read the story about how a hospital client found the answer they were looking for at a hotel in Hawaii.

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The short version is the Director of Patient Engagement, who was on holiday in Hawaii in 2010 with her family. Moments after arriving in their hotel room, she received a text from the resort’s general manager thanking her and her family for trusting the hotel for their memorable vacation. The hospital director took that message and technology and applied it to her hospital for patients checking in for a procedure. The hospital regained its #1 status in their community, and the Director is now the Chief Patient Experience Officer for a 20-hospital healthcare system.

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I’d say she got some powerful new perspectives from an unlikely source.

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Your Next Step

1. Document and store all these different types of perspectives. I use my Peripheral Resource Library system, which documents each experience with Contact/Context (the who and where), Content (the perspective/lesson), Conclusion (the measurable result), and Category (a title often associated with a business outcome).
2. Encourage your people to collect, document, and share perspectives from their trusted advisors and past and new experiences.
3. Create a 30-minute monthly appointment in your schedule to collect and review new perspectives.

NOTE: I don’t recommend ranking or scoring the perspectives, but if you must, give the new and unusual perspectives more weight. Otherwise, dismissing them as simply novel thoughts rather than inspirational insights is too easy.

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Perspectives determine your success or failure as a leader.

Whether your business is springing to life, in a season of exciting change, or headed for dormancy, how you lead depends on your perspectives.

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The more you have, the greater your company’s current and long-term success.

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So, get out there and collect, assemble, and creatively combine perspectives.

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Until next time… I’ll be looking for you in the periphery!

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Paul

Now What?

1. Get and use more perspectives.
2. Share this newsletter with others.
3. Ask me about speaking at your next event.
4. Schedule 30 minutes to see if/how I can help you.

Additional News

• To my friends at the Florida Pest Management Association: I look forward to meeting you at your summer conference in June. Leadership, Partnership, and Relationship! This will be a cruise to remember!
• Archives of all “Break All The Rules” (fka Peripheral Thinkers? Newsletter) are available here.

When you are ready, here’s how I can help you.

I help business leaders find and apply new perspectives to build innovative companies that thrive in any market and environment.

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1.??? Keynotes & Workshops

At a time when speeches and workshops look and sound the same, audiences say that the Peripheral Thinking? message stands out. “New. Insightful. Inspiring. Immediately applicable.” Find samples here. I’d love to help you make your event the best ever. “With Paul on stage, event planners relax confidently. Sponsors stand proudly. Audiences engage enthusiastically.”

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2.??? Executive & Board Advisory

Take your observations from the newsletter and start applying them to your business. The Peripheral Thinkers? advisory programs help CEOs, Founders, Business Leaders, and Corporate Executives apply new perspectives to build innovative, disruption-proof businesses.

Programs are designed for your needs and delivered in 1:1, group, and ongoing advisory sessions. Click here, select ADVISORY, and I’ll reach out to discuss your objectives.

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