I conducted a rather simple 2 hour problem solving session for a new Director and 4 managers this week. No training, no coaching, mainly just asking questions about his group and its leadership. The follow up written lessons and observations from the 13-year Director about his managers, including one working for him for 12 years, were a totally new perspective. It was as if the director had seen someone totally different. That's because he was given a third party perspective. The director could watch and observe rather than being emotionally involved or consumed with a task/conversation at hand.
I've had many leaders ask me to do a final interview with a "great candidate", then look at me after the interview and say "I don't know what I was thinking". Their detached 3rd party view created a new perspective.
Getting a third party perspective is critical in sales and negotiation, as well as management. The salesperson that's capable of having a third party mindset is super successful (it takes much practice and development). For the sales person that struggles to have a third party mindset, joint selling with a secondary observer participant can be effective.
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