Put yourself in their shoes!
Ok. Granted. These may not fit your style, but you get my point.
I shared an interesting article yesterday with some of my social media friends. It said that “people who read fiction seem to be better able to understand other people, empathize with them, and see the world from their perspective.” It also said that the brain does not really make the difference between reading about an incident and encountering it in real life. It (the brain) reacts in the same manner. In other words, whether it is really happening to you or not, you have the capacity (at least your brain is willing to) experience it as though it is really happening.
Wow! Where do you go now?
Do you sometimes wonder why we bother? Why do we have to make this so complicated? Don’t you want to say: Look, I’ll wear my shoes, you wear yours and the world will be a much easier place to live. Right? What part of that does the rest of the world not get?
It is a shoe size issue. When your shoe is bigger or heavier than anyone else’s, then typically you get to lead the walk. Every time. You have heard it said that the best ointment is in the smallest jar. At least it is a saying in French….I sure hope it translates the same in English….So, if I use this analogy, and apply it to shoes (are you still with me?) then potentially, if I let the heavier shoe lead the walk, I will never get to experience what the smallest shoe has to offer and according to my French adage, it might be the best thing since sliced bread.
What a shame that would be to miss that.
Because you carefully select the people you work with, because you believe in their talent and capabilities, because you support diversity and believe in its ability to enrich your organization and because you know that someone else’s perspective is different and maybe, just maybe, has an angle yours does not have, you want to make sure you leverage every opportunity you have to innovate, move forward and ensure the work place is a vibrant and rich place for everyone to thrive in.
To tell you the truth, to get all of this, I would even wear those shoes. So my point is, why you want to put yourself in their shoes is so that you can see the world from their perspective. Remember, when you work alone it goes a lot faster but when you work together with others, you go a lot further.
How you lead yourself, and others, matters.