How to Have a Leadership Point of View

Leadership point of view defined

What is a leadership point of view? In the simplest of terms, it means thinking like a leader. What does thinking like a leader mean? It means changing your point of view (or pov) so that you are taking what comes to you each day and reacting to it like a leader would. Having a leadership point of view extends to almost all facets of our life and values. Leadership and leaders are so often thought of in the wrong context.

While you often see leadership of other people exemplified at work, in sports or on the battlefield, the real leadership challenge is in the everyday details. Leadership isn't always just leadership of the people or team around us. Leadership is the choices we make each day and the values that we choose to cultivate in ourselves. People respect leaders that have strong values and know what their leadership point is.

The small choices we make every day when reacting to the mundane routines of our lives is what makes the difference in how we view the world around us. Thoughts become attitudes, attitudes become words, words become actions and actions become habits. If you want to be a leader you must control the process from the very beginning.

Leaders have many defining characteristics but in this article we will focus on three main leadership characteristics, taking ownership, solutions focused and forward thinking. If you want to go more in-depth on leadership characteristics, we have written about this extensively in our article Leadership Characteristics and Habits You Need to be a Successful Leader.

Leaders take ownership

Having a leadership point of view means changing the way we think about our problems and life in general. When life's challenges present themselves, you can either look at others for a leader to solve the problem or take ownership of them and be the leader you wish you had.

Thinking like a leader isn't just for problem solving either. How you sleep, how you eat, parenting your children, driving to work, how you react depends on your point of view. You either look at these situations through the lens of your leadership values or you don't. If your tired every day, are you sleeping enough? If you're always rushing to work, does your morning routine need to change? Are you disciplined with the way you eat or do you give in to every craving? So many people know what they should do but either lack the discipline or values to be consistent in their leadership.

All of these questions and countless more can be summed up in one question. Do you share ownership over the role you played in creating the situations you find yourself in? Or do you look to blame others for your circumstances. Another way to phrase this is will you be the victim or the victor?

If you feel this is an opportunity for you, then we encourage you to take immediate action and begin to take ownership right now! It can be difficult to alter this mindset but we promise it is worth it! There are several great books on this subject but there is one in particular we recommend if you are interested in learning how to modify your point of view.

Taking ownership is also great for the development of your leadership and changing the culture of your team or business. If you know the values of your team or business don't align with the values you want them too, take ownership today and work to identify ways to make that happen. Often the problem can be solved simply by coaching your leaders through the issue and driving home the leadership point you are trying to make.

A leader is solutions focused

As you begin to further develop your leadership point of view, a big part of thinking like a leader is being solutions focused. A huge part of the leader's job is to solve problems, especially for other people. To do that, they must always be thinking of the challenge's they see as opportunities that can be overcome. Just like taking ownership, being solutions focused applies to every facet of our lives.

When presented with a problem, do you know how you react? If you want to be a leader, you should react with calm, poise and a can do attitude. That doesn't mean you don't take the issue seriously, but leaders don't overreact to problems. If it is a personal problem with your leadership, identify what you can change in yourself and change it. If it is an external business problem, collaborate with others, research it and leverage the team you have to find solutions.

Exercise your leadership values and point of view to change the story and create a better outcome than the one that would exist without your leadership.

It is the leaders job to instill hope in others and generate ideas when faced with problems. Leader's must remain vigilant in controlling their mindset and keep themselves positive. When you practice being solutions focused, you will be solutions focused!

Coaching yourself to be forward thinking and minding your business

What is your general outlook for tomorrow? Are you a naturally positive person or a pessimistic one? Having a leadership point of view is about having a forward thinking mentality. This goes beyond just being positive around others, it means making a conscious effort to be positive and MAKE tomorrow better.

How do you do that? Being forward thinking means framing all of your decisions and actions through the lens of how your "tomorrow self" will feel about your choice today. Will "tomorrow you" thank you for the choice "today you" is about to make? It might seem silly but we promise this exercise is extremely helpful when trying to be a forward thinking leader.

Another way to look at this is minding your own business. Not in the sense of being nosy but rather, know your personal business inside and out. Your values, thought patterns and leadership point of view and how you will respond tomorrow, to what you are about to do today.

When you begin to successfully transition your point of view to a forward thinking one you are acting more and more like a leader. As you get better at this thought exercise, you can start to expand it. How will "one year from now you" feel about the decision you are about to make? We share this from experience as imperfect leaders that have made plenty of mistakes. In our article Words of Wisdom for New Leaders: Everything We Wish We Had Learned Years Ago we discuss many of these such lessons.

Summing it all up

Thinking like a leader and developing your leadership point of view is a skill that you can start practicing immediately but will take some time to turn into a habit. When you begin to alter your point of view to think like a leader it is amazing how your leadership values can start to change. Your attitude toward others changes for the better and your point of view regarding problems does as well.

When you have a leadership point of view, you begin to see opportunity instead of obstacles. Thinking like a leader is also a sign of maturity and is often picked up on by the people around you. Those in your circle of influence are looking to you to continue to be a leader. Your formal authority will only take you so far when leading people.

Leaders set the tone and if you hope to influence people around you, you will need to give others a reason to follow you. If you work hard to develop a leadership point of view, you will be well on your way to accomplishing that goal!

Let's share a good read

We can't discuss this topic or leadership in general without mentioning Ken Blanchard and his books. Ken Blanchard wrote one of the first leadership books we ever read called the One Minute Manager. In this book Ken discusses the development of multiple leaders told from the pov of an executive.

The executive focuses much of his energy on developing his leaders and the others that work for him. Driving home the values and instilling the point of view he feels they need. If you want to greatly enhance your point of view on this topic, or your leadership values in general, check out this book!

There is another great book built around this topic called The Leadership Challenge that takes a look at a lot of the details of what we discussed in this article. It goes into great detail what leaders can continue to do to change their point of view. Check it out today!

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