“Laser-focused” is this year’s jargon phase.

According to Bloomberg News, CEOs are laser-focused on sales, new products, and anything else deserving of a light beam.

While tight focus and clarity are de rigueur this year, you can experience value by stepping back and away.

Changing your perspective can help you see the situation better—even if it’s slightly out of focus as the picture above. For example, see my blog post from earlier this year, 3 ways to be clear from a distance.

There’s another brain-friendly way to improve your thinking from a distance—especially if you’ve had a negative experience.

Let’s take this example. A stakeholder you had been counting on for support for the strategic initiative you’re leading starts criticizing you for the way you’re attempting to build bridges with others. The individual says you’re railroading people rather than listening to their points of view and meeting them where they are. Furthermore, you’re acting like a world-class bully.

How you react can affect not only your emotional state, but also your physical well-being, according to the research. The implementation of your strategic initiative also may be impacted.

If you become laser focused, you may immerse yourself in the experience again. As you relive being called a “world-class bully,” you run the risk of making yourself more upset.

Worse, you may not gain any insights on what to do. And you may continue to rehash the conversation, whether you intend to or not. You just can’t get it out of your mind.

By contrast, if you practice self-distance, you set aside your egocentric point of view. You look at the situation from the perspective of an observer. You act as the fly on the wall.

Rather than replaying the experience, you reflect on it. For example, you might ask yourself, “When my distance-self was called a bully, what did my distance-self feel and why?”

That question can help you think more objectively about what happened, and what you may want to do to differently to build support.    

How do you change your perspective from self-immersion to self-distance?

Three ways to get self-distance that work for me and individuals I’ve coached are:

1. Physically move to a different location than where you had the experience. For example, go outdoors, visit a conference room or go to the cafeteria. The change in perspective can make it easier for you to think differently and change your perceptions.

2. Take the perspective of another person, real or imagined. Ask yourself how you would view the situation if you were someone else, such as another work colleague you admire, another individual you respect or even a fictional action hero. Putting yourself in another person’s shoes helps you shift your thinking.

3. Apply the 10/10/10 tool. The business writer Suzy Welch invented this tool for thinking about decisions on three different time frames: 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years. It’s also useful for getting emotional distance. You can consider future emotions as well as present ones. Ask yourself: What’s the impact of this situation going to be on me in 10 minutes? In 10 months? In 10 years?

Considering that each person’s brain is unique, these three tips may not work perfectly for you. Experiment until you find what works well for you.

Meanwhile, if you want to learn about the science, check out the article Making Meaning out of Negative Experiences by Self-Distancing by Dr. Ethan Kross and Dr. Ozlem Ayduk.

Also, thanks to Dr. Josh Davis, the NeuroLeadership professor who taught this lesson. His research deals with adaptive emotional state control and mind-body connections.

How do you feel about changing your distance?