Why perspective matters: seeing your business and impact through other people’s eyes
Perspective
It is difficult to see your own work clearly when you are immersed in it, particularly when you work for yourself, by yourself. The long hours, constant problem solving and gradual evolution of ideas make progress feel incremental. You know what you hope to stand for (in my case: integrity, ethics and genuine impact) but it can be hard to know whether that is how others perceive you and the work you do.
That is why receiving the Best Business in Business Services award at the 2025 Best Businesswomen Awards this month was such a significant moment. The judges described my work as demonstrating:
“…exceptional business acumen, ethical leadership and a deep commitment to client service and community… supported by a values-led approach and high-quality evidence.”
These words meant a great deal to me, because they captured precisely what I hope people experience when they work with me. Yet, when you are inside the day-to-day of running a business, you see the unfinished tasks, the lessons still being learned, the realities behind the scenes – and not necessarily the integrity or leadership that others perceive.
It reminded me how powerful it can be when someone else reflects your work back through a different lens.
Over the last couple of months, I have also taken part in brand photographer Joanna Wood’s Unmasked project, which offered a very different kind of reflection. Through the process of designing and wearing a mask, I explored the contrast between how others see me and how I see myself: the calm that often disguises the effort, the order that requires constant energy to maintain, the external confidence that does not always reflect how I really feel, and the resilience I have built despite the challenges going on behind the scenes.
Both experiences revealed something important about perspective and impact. How we are perceived, how we see ourselves, and how those perceptions align all influence the difference we make: not only in our work, but in the trust and connection it creates.
Seeing ourselves through others’ eyes
Perspective has the power to clarify what we cannot see for ourselves. When we are close to the work, we focus on the next task, the next goal, the things still left incomplete. Yet when others describe what they see, the picture changes. Their words often capture the essence of our work more truthfully than our own self-assessment ever could.
This is the principle behind my Rapid Impact Review process. When I interview a business’s clients, I can elicit bigger, more meaningful praise than they might ever hear directly. Their clients feel comfortable being open and honest with me as a third party, which means the feedback is both richer and more constructive. Often, it uncovers truths that would otherwise have remained hidden - the kind of insights that can transform how a business understands its value.
Sometimes that feedback exposes something that has quietly been holding a business back. More often, it reveals impact far greater than the team had realised. By surfacing that evidence, we move beyond assumption to clarity. It becomes possible to see the genuine difference being made, and to express it with confidence and integrity.
The distortion of proximity
We all make assumptions about how things work, how we will be seen and how well we are performing. We build services, programmes and processes from our own perspective, believing we understand what people need and how they will respond. And on the whole, we are likely to be right – after all, we are the experts in our fields. But proximity carries the risk of creating bias, or missing things if we don’t dig deeper.
Once our work is out in the world, it takes on a life of its own. What we intended and what others experience are not always the same. That is why perspective matters. We need to check, to ask, to observe how our ideas perform in practice. Are they landing as we hoped? Are they serving people as well as we believe they are? Are they truly fit for purpose? Are we creating the impact we really intend to?
Without that reality check, we risk designing for ourselves rather than for the people we aim to help.
Perspective and integrity in impact
Perspective also acts as a safeguard. It helps us ensure that the story we tell about our impact remains honest and credible. In a world full of inflated claims and polished narratives, authenticity stands out. When intention and perception align, trust deepens.
True impact does not need embellishment. It lives in how others experience our work, how they describe it, and how that experience matches what we set out to create.
The full picture
The Best Businesswomen Award judges reflected the professional version of me: resilient, values-driven and deeply committed to the people I serve. The Unmasked project revealed the personal one: capable, human but sometimes stretched to my limits. Neither is the full story, yet both are true.
Perspective, I have realised, is vital to creating meaningful impact. It reminds us to step back, to listen, and to see ourselves as others do - not for validation, but for clarity. That is where genuine impact lives: in the space between intention and perception, effort and effect, who we think we are and what others experience of us.
If you too can see the value a different perspective can bring to your business, get in touch and let’s have a free, no-obligation chat. My mission is to amplify your impact, and there’s no better time to start than right now.