How to Authentically Lead with Your Perspective

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How to Authentically Lead with Your Perspective

To assert more influence without bulldozing, try this approach.

Jori Bell

Apr 24, 2025

Transcript

Me last week: “You don’t need a framework.” 🙄

Me this week: “Okay, but here’s a framework.” 🫣

What changed?

I had a session with a client that brought me back to a game-changing moment in my career. We were strategizing about how she could better own her authority and be seen as a subject matter expert. We spoke about what it meant and felt like to lead with her perspective. And it reminded me of the powerful shift I made when I adopted this tool.

But first….

Why is leading with your perspective scary?

For some readers that fear may not calculate. Why wouldn’t I lead with my perspective?

For others, perhaps my female readers or fellow Midwesterners1, it's counter intuitive to what we were conditioned to do: be polite, don’t rock the boat and make others comfortable first.

But let’s do some reconditioning. When you lead with your perspective, you signal authority. You show your team and your leaders the path forward. And, you give people something to respond to.

PMs who show up with a mountain of raw data may think they’re being “data driven” but the truth is, they don’t move the room.

PMs who lead with a perspective…those are the ones who make moves.

The framework I swear by

It’s not too fancy, it’s quite simple and it goes like this.

Let’s say you’re tasked with diving deep on a problem area the team needs to come to a decision on.

Lead with: Here’s my recommendation.

Follow with: I also considered A, B, and C. And here’s why I ruled them out.

That’s it. That’s the post.(Okay, not really—but almost.)

As a PM, you’re gathering endless inputs: user insights, engineering constraints, market context, etc. It’s easy to get stuck in the weeds and feel like your job is to present the options.

But the real magic happens when you move from away from curating.

Bringing your team something focused to react to helps you assert yourself as a leader and moves the team in a direction. Walking them through what else you considered and why you didn’t pick it shows them that you’ve done the comprehensive work.

Let’s get tactical and let’s say you’re working on onboarding improvements. You’ve done the research, talked to users, and mapped out three directions:

Option A: Add a “getting started” checklist to guide new users through setup.
Option B: Redesign the entire onboarding flow from scratch.
Option C: Launch a series of tooltips triggered by user behavior.

Here’s how this sounds when you lead with your perspective:

“Based on everything we’ve learned, I recommend we start with Option A, the checklist. It gives us a lightweight way to guide users without requiring major design or engineering effort.
I also explored Option B, but it’s a complete overhaul and would take us at least two sprints, too slow to impact next quarter’s retention goals. Option C was promising, but our current event tracking isn’t robust enough to trigger the tooltips effectively, and we’d risk confusing users without the right logic in place.”

This kind of framing does a few things:

It gives your team a starting point.
Instead of showing up with a wall of options, you offer direction. Which helps your team build momentum. Even if your perspective shifts, anchoring the conversation in a direction gives people something to push against, build on, or clarify. You’re not trying to be the smartest person in the room, you’re trying to move the room forward.
It helps you show your work without info-dumping.
By going beyond curation, you show people you did the work. That builds credibility. People trust you more when they can see the rigor behind your thinking2, but they really trust you when you don’t make them dig through the weeds themselves. People can’t be bothered, especially leaders
It leaves the door open for discussion.
You’re not being rigid. You’re offering a clear starting point. In doing so you create psychological safety and shows leadership. You’re not putting the burden on your leaders to figure it out for you. You’ve already done the heavy lifting, and now you’re inviting partnership.

Why it works

This framework isn’t meant to solve everything.

As I noted before, it's meant to anchor conversation.

And this framework does that in a few ways:

It positions you as a subject matter expert.
When you lead with your recommendation, you’re not just saying “Here’s what I found.” You’re saying “Here’s my informed opinion.” That shift is the difference between being seen as a contributor versus a strategic partner. PMs who consistently show up with a well-reasoned opinion signal that they understand the problem space, can weigh tradeoffs and are ready to guide the team forward.
It builds credibility.
When you present your thinking clearly, you show that you’ve put in the work. And that you’re still being open to feedback. That mix of clarity and humility earns respect, from your team to your leaders.
It gives optionality.
The magic of this approach is that it doesn’t box anyone in. You’re offering a well-considered path forward and showing that you’ve pressure-tested other directions. That gives your leaders or teammates room to adjust, refine, or even choose a different route. It starts the conversation in a much more productive place. This is especially useful in high-stakes, fast-moving environments. When decisions need to be made, direction is more valuable than data overload.

So if you’re looking for a way to assert more influence without bulldozing, try this approach: Lead with your take. Show your thinking. And don’t be scared of the discourse. Invite it.

How do you lead with your perspective?

I’m hosting event next Tuesday: Product x Engineering Chemistry Coaching

It’s for product and engineering leaders that want to work better, together. Check out more and RSVP here.