Cognitive Perspective Taking relies on your ability to interpret a person’s thoughts or beliefs.
Affective perspective Taking relies on your ability to interpret a person’s feelings or emotions at that time.
Cognitive Perspective Taking
Cognitive Perspective-taking or interpreting a person’s beliefs or thoughts works in essay examples where you had to negotiate for a deal or a decision and interpret the decision maker’s perspective.
The least effective essays are those where only the applicant’s thinking is shown in a positive light.
Case Study: VC Applicant (Cognitive Perspective Taking)
I edited the essay of a VC applicant, who had an interesting evaluation model and a suggestion to invest in a region that was considered saturated. The stakeholder, in this case, a partner, opposed the idea.
For us, the entire narrative was about changing his perspective. We didn’t demean his character, thinking, or perspective. Instead of that, we build a case around the stakeholder’s perspective by sharing with the reader how the person began to have this opinion, not to invest in the region. One obvious reason was a previous failure.
Again, the low-hanging fruit was to attribute risk aversion as the cause, but we dug deep and found an evaluation model that confirmed his position. So, then it became all about how the applicant found a new insight.
By balancing the partner’s skepticism and the client’s unique data set, we established a narrative with sufficient W-pattern to create an essay that took advantage of Cognitive Perspective Taking. And it showed the client’s maturity and empathy for the stakeholder.
Affective perspective Taking
The second kind of perspective taking is Affective perspective taking, where you are assessing a stakeholder’s feelings or emotional state. The best examples I have read were all outside professional work. It is around helping a peer pick up a new skillset or overcome a cultural barrier, or in some cases, overcome a personal loss (death, or divorce/breakup), or feel welcomed in a group.
Case Study: Consultant (Affective Perspective Taking)
For the essay of a Consultant who played a pivotal role in changing the culture of the organization, we cited an example of how he sensed the emotional state of a client in a meeting. After the meeting, the applicant reached out and asked if something was bothering her. She shared the challenges of managing a divorce while in a crucial phase of the consulting engagement. The act of sensing the emotion elevated the relationship from a formal client-consultant to a trustworthy confidante that the client could trust. Later, when conflicts emerged on certain terms of the consulting engagements, the client could trust the consultant's perspective on the challenges the team was facing in implementing certain deliverables.
We didn't use any big transformative narrative but relied on a simple 'trust' building example to hint at factors that made the consultant a highly effective negotiator. The recommendation letter confirmed the trait.
Mix Both - Affective Perspective Taking and Cognitive Perspective Taking
If you are strategic, you will mix both affective perspective-taking that assesses a stakeholder’s emotional state and then narrate their belief to establish why a person behaved or communicated in a certain way.
For examples of perspective taking in MBA application essays, Download F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay Guide