Shifting Your Perspective

Albert Einstein once famously said: “One cannot solve a problem with the same mind-set that created it in the first place.” As the global business environment, driven by diversity and interconnectivity, becomes increasingly complex, we all need a range of skills to deal with the challenges. Both kinds of smart leaders need to identify and understand the limitations of their perspective and then learn to shift it.

We see two critical paths to shifting one’s perspective, as indicated in the “What Is ‘Perspective’?” section. The common path is that of desperation, which is adopted by leaders who have to radically shift their perspective in reaction to unexpected crisis. In this dire situation, the shift in perspective usually does not last. The second is the path of aspiration: a leader proactively and willingly seeks out and finds a noble purpose that will provide direction when the path ahead is hazy, acting as a kind of North Star.⁶ A noble purpose is one that transcends personal gain and ego and is worth pursuing in an honorable manner. It gives meaning to one’s life and offers a path with many choices to contentment and happiness. Your noble purpose gives you humility when arrogance announces false victory and inspires you when the outlook seems bleak.⁷ We will discuss noble purpose (we call it North Star because it fulfills that role for smart leaders) more at length later in this chapter, but it suffices to say here that once you find your North Star, your perspective irrevocably shifts.

Shifting perspective is not a one-off conscious act, but an ongoing process that needs to be undertaken diligently. The goal is to cultivate openness as a way to facilitate a continual reframing. By unlearning and selectively forgetting past successes, wise leaders open themselves to an unknown future. They are humble enough to allow their mind to be shifted by external circumstances. This flexible mind-set enables them to continually reframe and reinterpret events and find new meanings within a rapidly changing external context.

In November 2011, some of the biggest players in Silicon Valley, from venture capitalists to billionaire entrepreneurs, attended a gala event to toast their success and swap stories about their great experiences. Nipun Mehta, the cofounder of ServiceSpace, an all-volunteer organization that leverages technology to inspire public service, gave the keynote address in which he talked about becoming richer—not by earning more money but by giving away one’s riches and “serving others”—as the noblest act one can perform in one’s life.⁸ Mehta explained his concept of the “gratitude economy,” or making economic decisions through the lens of gratitude rather than greed.

Mehta was speaking from firsthand experience because ServiceSpace has over 340,000 members who are driven by a desire to transcend their individual selves and serve a larger purpose. These members run a wide range of generosity-driven projects that include a popular daily news service, DailyGood.com, that delivers inspirational news every day—in contrast with the doom-and-gloom events reported in mainstream media (DailyGood.com receives 1 million page views a month.) Members also operate an acts-of-kindness portal, HelpOthers.org, as well as Karma Kitchen, a nationwide network of gift-economy restaurants: anyone can eat there for free in exchange for committing to serve as a volunteer (as unpaid servers, greeters, or cooks) in the restaurant in the future.

During his keynote address, Mehta recounted how the members of ServiceSpace, many of them accomplished professionals, “value” their lives based on the hours they invest in improving the lives of others. They measure return on investment of their time in terms of the joy and satisfaction they bring to others. These volunteers derive their life energy and passion by “giving, receiving, and loving” rather than “taking, taking, and taking,” Mehta explained.⁹ We heard from people who attended the meeting that these were striking observations for the highly successful, wealth-driven Silicon Valley audience. Some were moved to tears.

The next day the CEO of a well-known tech firm who attended the talk wrote to Mehta about his experience after the meeting. He said that while he was driving home, his wife called to say that their eighty-year-old neighbor was on her way to the emergency room after experiencing dizziness and high blood pressure. The CEO, deciding to act outside his normal behavior, drove straight to the hospital and spent the next hours at her bedside. He comforted his neighbor and friend as the doctors ran tests. “What was relevant to me was that I was granted an intimate and heartfelt audience with another human being that entertained my inquisition on the nature of spirit,” the CEO wrote.¹⁰

Many leaders such as this tech CEO undergo a shift in consciousness in an unexpected way after attending an inspiring talk or reading a moving book or through hearing about an emotional personal experience. Some ignore those insights and remain locked in their traditional mind-set. But others find that such experiences set the stage for them to discover their real purpose in life, perhaps for the first time.

One aspect of wise leadership is about using smartness for the greater good. The CEO who went outside his normal behavior to give comfort to a neighbor could use that experience, and his reflections on it, as a springboard to lead others to court similar experiences. He could start by figuring out a way to spend part of his time in making a difference to others. To take it even further, he could encourage his employees to volunteer and engage in acts of kindness on a regular basis. In our experience, only rarely do leaders take such actions. When they do take such steps, however, they experience an irreversible shift in their perspective as they discover and more deeply connect to their noble purpose.

Serving a noble purpose requires moving outside our comfort zone and discovering our connection with each other and the universe around us. Once we discover a noble purpose, we can transcend our self-centered perspective and adopt a broader perspective that is more inclusive of others.