Why Perspective Taking Is an Essential Skill for Success

It’s the ability to take on someone else’s point of view when thinking.

By taking yourself out of the equation, the motivations of your opponent becomes clearer. And by understanding the other side’s true motivations, you’re in a better position to anticipate their responses and offer them an acceptable compromise.

• Put aside your feelings so that you can concentrate only on the other person’s perspective.
• Use open ended questions that can help you draw out the interests and motivation that the person may not be verbalizing.
• Be clear about your own position and the weaknesses it has.
• Remove any personal intentions you may have, so as not to project them on to the other person.
• Using what you know about the person, their background, their mood, their intentions and expectations,  imagine how they are seeing the current situation.
• Validate their position by paraphrasing back to them what you think their position is.