People in the same organisation can experience the same situation very differently. A decision that feels logical to a board can feel abrupt on the shop floor. A comment that one colleague hears as directness, another hears as disrespect. Perspective-taking is the effort to understand those differences before you judge them.
Understanding another perspective does not mean agreeing with it, and it does not mean that every claim is equally true. Facts still matter, and some interpretations are better supported than others. The point is that people's experiences, interests and values shape what they see, and that a leader who ignores this misses information.
Perspective-taking is also about yourself: noticing which assumptions you bring, and which views tend to be missing from the table.
Imagine a board discussing why a new way of working is not catching on. The explanation that keeps coming back is resistance to change. When board members go and talk to the teams involved, they hear something different: the new system adds work at the busiest moment of the week. The resistance turns out to be useful feedback that the board had not heard.
For leaders this means actively seeking out views that differ from their own, especially from people who are less likely to speak up. It means asking questions before drawing conclusions, and being willing to let what you hear change your picture of the situation.
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