A Fresh Perspective
Have you ever looked at something for so long or so hard that you’ve looked passed the obvious? Maybe it’s out of frustration or tiredness but you just can’t figure it out and even if it wasn’t out of frustration or being tired, you eventually get that point. One of the hats I wear is as a tech director at my church. I oversee all of the production and technology elements that have to do with our worship services. By the way, I have another post called “Which Hat” looking at the idea of how leaders have to wear a lot of hats but some we don’t take off. Recently, we installed some additional LED panels to our LED screen for both creative purposes and the ability to display different information than that on the main screen. I knew going into it we were going to have to make some adjustments to some of our resolutions and change the format on some of the information. What I didn’t realize is the problems it was going to cause us “downstream” from there. What I mean is how our computer sends information to other screens and displays both around our church and on our digital platforms. I immediately went to work on trying to resolve this but to my dismay, I couldn’t. I became frustrated and tired. I don’t like leaving things undone. It’s not in my personality, but this time I had to.
One of the few definitions for perspective refers to a point of view. Meaning, what you’re looking at looks differently depending on where you’re standing when you look. The obvious to that is that, something can look different depending on the point of view. That’s easier said than done sometimes. For me, it reminded of something Mark Batterson said,
“change of pace + change of place = change of perspective.”
One of the reasons I had to leave it undone at that point, even knowing I would have to come back to it, was I had to leave town the next day. I did my best to put it all away, both literally but more importantly, in my mind. That next morning I got up, got my kids fed and off to school, and got on my way. As I drove, I spent time praying, mostly for peace over my mind as I travelled. I listened to some music and caught up on some phone calls that I needed to take care of. Then, unexpectedly, the answer to my tech problems hit me. I was about an hour and a half into my seven our drive at this point. All that stress and frustration from the previous day became almost comical. The situation wasn’t lost on me. I had my change of pace, taking a trip to see some friends and retreat a little, and a change of place. At that time the place was in a rental car driving down the interstate but the answer had come to me!
Has anything like this ever happened to you before? Where you found yourself “gripping” too tightly you were missing the obvious? I wish I could say this was the only time that something like this happened to me. For me, the leadership lesson that I’m continuing to learn is to step back from situations rather than react. I’m a “fixer,” so my go to response to problems is to go into fixing mode. When I’m able to step back (change of pace) and process without the situation in my face I can usually come to a clearer response. It’s easy for many leaders, myself included as I’ve said, to push through something to reach resolution but when we push we sometimes don’t reach the best answer. When we’re able to get a fresh perspective, however, we usually can come to a clearer and more efficient and effective answer to the problem at hand. I recognize we can’t always leave the room much less leave the state in order for that clarity but what if we figured out ways for us to do this on a micro level. How might this affect our leadership? How could this help our organizations and those we lead?
Find your change of pace and your change of place and get yourself a change of perspective. Keep leading, stay the course! You have what it takes!