The one person you can never see from another person’s perspective is yourself. Ironic because that’s the one person you’d most like to see from another person’s perspective. Everyone else sees you that way, so it would be nice to see how other people see us.
You always hear stories about people who think they’re great leaders, but unknown to them, they always scowl or their voices don’t sound like they think they do or people undermine them behind their backs.
As a coach, offering an external perspective — a mirror — is one of the more valuable services I can offer, even if I give no active advice but merely passive feedback.
As a regular person, like anyone else I wish I could see myself through other people’s eyes. The best I can do is ask for others to share their perspectives. And to remember that I can’t see myself from anyone’s perspective but my own.
I presume everyone has realized the point in today’s title before. No big advice or insight today, just that simple, basic point.
About Joshua
Former rocket scientist now entrepreneur, leadership coach, speaker, and artist, Joshua Spodek (PhD ’00, Astrophysics; MBA ’06; both Columbia University) has succeeded at many big things that few people even try. More importantly, he loves everything he does.
A modern renaissance man, he studied with Nobel Prize winners and helped build a European Space Agency X-ray satellite to observe supernova remnants, then started a business now operating globally based on several of his patents. He coaches leadership with the Columbia Business School Program on Social Intelligence and taught at New York University and the New School. He earned five Ivy-League diplomas; has shown his art in solo gallery shows and museums and installed large public art in New York and around the world; socializes with Academy Award winners; ran five marathons; and competed at national and global sporting events.
He has been quoted and profiled in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, Fortune, CNN, and the major broadcast networks. Esquire Magazine named him “Best and Brightest” in its annual Genius issue.
More here:
http://joshuaspodek.com/about
