Productive Vs. Unproductive Points Of View

We’ve been helping business owners overcome barriers and reach their goals since 1999. And in all those years, one thing we’ve learned is that how you think about your work will determine how you work. If you want a different result, it’s often important to stop and think about the points of view you have that are holding you back.

A point of view is simply the lens that influences how we see the world around us. It’s built based on beliefs, attitudes, and past experiences. We challenge you to pay attention to how you’re approaching any given situation. What point of view are you approaching that situation from? Is it productive or unproductive?

Here are a few examples of unproductive points of view, versus productive points of view:

One thing to notice is that an unproductive point of view often puts an emphasis on things happening to you. An unproductive point of view places a focus around things you can’t control. You can’t control vendor prices. You can’t control the quality of the hiring market. You can’t control whether someone is lazy or not. When you’re making decisions from an unproductive point of view, it’s easy to slip into blame and the role of being a victim.

On the other hand, a productive point of view places a focus on what you can control and influence. Could a team member be lazy? Perhaps, but until you put the right structures in place—training, expectations, processes, and even practice—you won’t influence change. You can always control the structures. There, of course, is a chance that the team member doesn’t step up to the plate. And then it’s time to let them go, but those are often extreme cases.

Think about how you’d approach a conversation with a team member who is struggling. Typically, if you have a point of view that they are lazy the conversation is going to be writing them up, perhaps demanding change, and likely to leave the team member feeling defensive. But if you approach the conversation with the point of view that they have untapped potential, you control the tone of the conversation. It can be more collaborative and inspiring. It can identify barriers in the way of success. The entire conversation shifts, because of the way you choose to approach the conversation. You don’t have to change the other person. Instead, you change your approach to get better results.

We challenge you to look carefully at the points of view you hold and how they influence the way you work. Remember, we can’t change other people, but we can always control the way we influence a situation by challenging our points of view.