A common theme in my leadership coaching is people feeling misunderstood at work.
Have you ever felt…
- undervalued? Maybe someone didn’t see what you could add to the conversation or contribute to the project.
- frustrated? When your communication style or learning preferences aren’t aligned with your colleagues, communication breakdowns are bound to happen.
- mislabeled? When positive intent or genuine effort get misinterpreted, a whole slew of misunderstandings can take place.
These misunderstandings can snowball beyond one interaction and create the perceptions that precede you, or your reputation, in the organization.
For the last few years, when I present to organizations, I’ve included a slide or two on qualities or behaviors neurodivergent team members bring to work, and how they can be misinterpreted. It always got the point across, but it wasn’t very interactive.
A few weeks ago, I was building a magnetic tile castle with my kid. I held a pair of the brightly colored tiles up to my eyes and got an idea! What if I could help people change their perspective in the moment?
Changing Our POV
Could bringing a stack of magnetic tiles with me help to “see” a situation differently?
I put together a slide with “hidden messages” that could only be seen through the colored tiles. Some messages showed up with the help of a blue tile, and other messages revealed themselves with the red tile.
I brought a stack of tiles to my next presentation, and it was fun to see everyone holding up different lenses to change their point of view. The following week, I had another workshop scheduled, and we decided to sneak the magnetic tile activity on that agenda as well.
Through one lens, people shouted out “passionate,” while those looking through a different lens said “obsessive.” Some would see “curious problem solver” while others saw “nosy, intrusive, or undermining.” We went through a slew of pairings, and only scratched the surface.
If you are quick to judgment on a colleague, what could you do to challenge that perspective? What questions might you ask, or what opportunities might you afford them?
Last month, I wrote about the opposite of inclusion. When teams and organizations are faced with limitations on language, it shapes their perspective. Instead of learning more about each other, assumptions can run wild. It also becomes easy to ‘other’ people and label them as outsiders, instead of celebrate the different perspectives.
If ‘othering’ isn’t your intention, I invite you to change your POV! You can make the conscious choice to see the good in others and understand their POV, or unconsciously default to misunderstood.
Ready to Change Perspectives?
Reach out to discuss workshops or cohort-based programs for the summer and beyond, or forward this to a friend who could benefit from a new POV.
This article was originally posted on Substack.
