You and many of the things around you are influenced more by opinions than you realize, so we need to put opinions in perspective.  Part of our philosophy at Pathfinders Institute is what we call, “Eyes Wide Open”.  This is where we seek to remove your blind spots, so you can make more fully informed, well-thought-out, well-considered, rational decisions.  Furthermore, we want you to rise to your full potential level of leadership, whether that be in your career, within your family, a civic organization, your church or in whatever area you choose.  One of the blind spots that we sometimes see in people is the influence and power that they allow other people’s  opinions have over them.

So, let’s look at opinions more closely, and we are intentionally using the word opinion, because we think you will be surprised, as we were, at how influential opinions can be.  We throw around the word opinion, as if it is an insignificant word, but as you will see, opinions are very powerful, sometimes for good, sometimes bad and sometimes downright destructive.

Let’s start in the professional environment, because this is one of the areas we really want to address.  Do you realize that your boss’ evaluation of your work performance is nothing more than his opinion?  We often see people who have been working under a boss, who beats them down, undermines them, fails to support their work efforts, and they, in turn, internalize their boss’ poor opinion of their work performance.  Now, let’s caveat this with an important note.  Hopefully, these situations are rare.  Hopefully, they are not the norm.  So, for the vast majority of employees, you need to take your boss’ evaluation seriously and internalize their feedback.  Don’t use this article as an excuse to reject your boss’ evaluation of your work.  That said, unfortunately, bad bosses are more common than we ever thought was possible, when we first began our careers.  So, keep in mind, that your evaluation is an opinion.  Maybe it is correct, professionally delivered, given to you by a person who has your success and the improvement of your job performance at heart.  However, if it isn’t, then, you need to be prepared to wait it out, hope for change while you continue to professionally and diligently perform your duties each day.