The Value of An Outside Perspective For Your Business

Why bother bringing in a new perspective?

You know your business. You know it better than anyone else.  Inside and out.    

Your up close and personal relationship with your business can cloud your perspective when planning or finalizing a decision.  Now, you may be thinking that you’re out of the woods because you have a team around you whose input you seek and whose influence you value.  An involved team is  a high value asset, but are they far enough removed to provide the type of perspective that would really change the game?  

You and your team speak a certain language, understand your intentions and operate within a specific context.  Even when you want to think outside the box, you likely just make your standard box a little bigger. When it’s time to really crack something open, rewrite a pattern, or make big audacious moves - that’s when you need to take a cue from many of the world’s largest companies and invite a values aligned outsider to the table.  This could be a mentor, a business strategist, a peer from another industry, or another individual that has a general mind for business but not an intimate knowledge of yours. 

Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash

So what exactly are the benefits of getting an outside perspective for your business?   

Engaging an outside perspective can help overcome bias

If you’re honest with yourself you might come to the conclusion that a lot of the things you do are done the way they are simply because it’s the way you’ve always done them.  It can be very challenging to consider how to move outside of these norms or see different approaches to the processes, products, systems or thought patterns.  You may not even recognize the potential of changing up these aspects of your business that feel foundational but could be absolutely game changing with the addition of an outside perspective. 

An outside perspective can help you understand the impact of your communication

It’s both a blessing and a curse to have a product or service that you know inside out and backwards.  Your familiarity and passion mean that you can describe all the uses and benefits as well as the impact it can have.  The challenge can be in communicating why someone might want it and being able to speak the language of those who really need it.  Your messaging could be confusing or you may have inadvertently let jargon creep into your sales material - these are things your familiarity will keep you from noticing, but an outside perspective will notice them right away.

Outsiders could have a type of experience that you have been missing 

Of course you have the jump on experience with your specific business, but most likely you will not have extensive experience with all aspects of business.  Bringing in support from someone with a specialty in finance, marketing, sales, innovation, organization or team dynamics can be an incredible benefit to your business and bring light into blind spots that you and your team may not have been as equipped to see and identify solutions for.