Most leadership problems aren’t caused by bad intent. They’re caused by flat thinking.
Leaders react to what’s right in front of them. The loud issue. The urgent email. The fire that just broke out. When everything is treated as a single plane, decisions feel rushed, narrow, and disconnected.
Perspective is what turns reaction into leadership. Perspective is seeing in 3D.
What “Seeing in 3D” Really Means
Seeing in 3D means you don’t just look at what is happening. You look at what it affects, what it creates, and what it makes harder next.
-
A people decision affects execution.
-
An execution decision affects customers.
-
A short-term fix affects long-term trust.
Flat thinking treats issues as isolated. 3D thinking sees how decisions ripple through the system.
Most leaders understand this conceptually. The problem is they lose it when the pressure shows up.
Why Pressure Flattens Perspective
When the week gets heavy, perspective collapses. Leaders default to the fastest answer, not the cleanest one.
You see it when:
-
Teams fix symptoms instead of causes
-
Leaders solve today and create tomorrow’s problem
-
Decisions get made without asking, “What does this set in motion?”
That’s not incompetence. It’s pressure narrowing the field of vision.
In sports, it’s the quarterback who locks onto one receiver and misses the defender underneath. The play looks open in one dimension. The problem shows up in the next. The same thing happens in business.
Perspective in Real Leadership
Perspective shows up when leaders slow the decision just enough to see depth. It’s asking:
-
What problem are we actually solving?
-
What does this decision make harder later?
-
Who else will feel this, even if they’re not in the room?
It’s choosing not to overcorrect. Not to pile on rules after one mistake or chase a metric without understanding the behavior it drives.
Perspective doesn’t delay action. It improves it.
Inside and Outside the Organization
Inside the company, perspective creates steadiness. Teams trust leaders who don’t swing wildly with every new data point. People make better decisions because they know the leader is thinking beyond the day.
Outside the company, customers feel it in consistency. Policies don’t change every month. Promises don’t shrink under pressure.
In sports, the best coaches don’t call plays just to win the moment. They manage the game. The clock. Field position. Personnel. They see the whole field.
In business, leaders with perspective manage the system, not just the situation.
The Leadership Shift
Perspective isn’t about being calm. It’s about being deliberate. Ask yourself:
-
Am I reacting to noise or responding to a pattern?
-
Am I solving this problem or just moving it?
-
What will this decision look like in 90 days?
Leaders who see in 3D don’t avoid hard calls. They make cleaner ones. When you can see depth, you stop playing defense against the week. You start leading the game.
Pat Alacqua helps leadership teams get the right work done by the right people at the right time. He prevents or fixes the operational and mental breakdowns that stall growth, allowing leaders to scale with clarity and control. He is the author of the Amazon best-seller Obstacles to Opportunity: Transforming Business Challenges into Triumphs.
If you are on a leadership team and growth feels harder day by day, follow him here on LinkedIn. This is the stage he helps leaders navigate every day.