Leaders Toolkit: Reframe Your Perspective
Here’s the scene. I’m sitting with a person who needs to vent. They are hitting a wall on a project or with a manager. They have so many reasons why that project or manager causes their woes. They are frustrated. They are angry. And it’s only one slice of their challenges, though they can’t see it. In fact, they are probably contributing to the problem.
Ever been in that room? I’m guessing you know many a person who holds onto a version of their story and unnecessary angst. We have all been that person in the room venting. We each hold ourselves back by carrying incomplete perspectives and that baggage is weighing us down. Here are two techniques to help you get a broader view and let go of that baggage.
Double-click into the good. House a mess? Maybe you had an incredible weekend spent outside so didn’t want to be indoors cleaning. What if you chose to focus on the beautiful sunlight coming in the windows versus the clutter? (But seriously that clutter!)
Yes the piles of stuff are there, but fixable and probably way less fun than that beautiful day calling to you! Now let’s turn to work. Boss less than perfect? Maybe he is a micromanager. Or there are 30 things you ask for and you only get 2. Or you forget to make an important point in your presentation. Find positive ways to focus your attention and energy. This helps give you context and context is often missing when you focus on the negative. Try to pull back and think about the big picture with a positive lens.
What can you control? Oftentimes when we’re frustrated or stumped we focus on a list of challenges—many of which are just not solvable. A few years back I had to pull together a variety of stakeholders from different offices to agree on a set of conclusions about our department. This was an annual process which has been run unsuccessfully and painfully through a “mandatory on site.” We lost our budget for the dreaded onsite. And then I sat down and asked myself, what can I control? I could make the process for creating the report more manageable and transparent even without the fancy budget. So that became my focus. I decided to break the report into themes, and then created a list with working groups where people could choose the topics they were interested in contributing to. I then published a public schedule of our working sessions—this time happening virtually—and invited the working groups to attend when their topic was up. I published a weekly bulletin of what was discussed and decided on and what we were tackling next. The results were striking. When it came time to get sign off on the report, what used to be a multi-month red-lined tug of war became a very quick step.
I sometimes have to call on my reframing technique multiple times a day! Grounding yourself in context, making sure you aren’t overemphasizing the negative thought or moment is important. And when thinking about how to solve a thorny challenge, choose a path within your toolkit.
