My first year of consulting I learned to always have a point of view.
Clients paid us hundreds of dollars an hour. Clients expected us to contribute to a conversation or idea with our own thought-out point of view. A dissenting opinion that challenged the status quo was preferable to vigorous head nodding agreement.
Your point of view is uniquely yours.
I don’t trust people who actively conceal what they think and where they stand. It’s theft. It’s withholding.
When people ask what your take is, tell them.
Two things are going to happen. They are going to roll with it, or they will reject it. Both outcomes are non-lethal and highly valuable.
I’ll demonstrate it, in case you need convincing.
Describe for me a foreign policy stance of any US President before 2016. I’ll wait. It’s ok. They are typically vague and undefined.
For example, Bush started our War on Terror. What’s that even mean?
Contrast that policy with this gem:
We’re going to build a wall, and make them pay.
Hate it or love it, that’s a clear point of view. It’s simple. Straightforward. You don’t need a Harvard degree to get what it means. And you immediately have a reaction to it. You owe your family, friends, and coworkers the same experience.
May you be as bold as Trump when folks seek your point of view.
It doesn’t need to be “right”.
It needs to be yours.