Common Leadership Blind Spots

Singular Inflexible Perspective – My way or highway.

Self-Conscious – How is this going to affect me.

Insecurity – Uncomfortable with other’s success.

Intimidation and Fear – Control over versus collaboration.

Lack of Empathy – No emotional connection or context.

Omission of Information – Doesn’t share information.

Create Chaos not Consensus – Can’t bring it all together.

Atlas Attitude – I will do it all and control everything.

Need to be Right – Can’t be wrong.

Need to be Served – Don’t serve their people, expect to be served.

As a business owner, it's important to be aware of your business blind spots to ensure the continued success and growth of your business. Blind spots are subconscious biases that can narrow your vision and potentially negatively impact your business. When working with our clients, here are some of the most common areas where we see entrepreneurial blind spots. By identifying these blind spots in yourself and your leadership team, you can create greater organizational advantages. By addressing these blind spots, you gain a competitive advantage, which ultimately contributes to building your personal wealth.  

MONEY FACT – Identifying and addressing your business blind spots is the fastest route to building your personal wealth.  Being honest about your blind spots allows you and your team to have authentic communication allowing for innovation and the exploration of new ideas.   

Here are some steps you can take to discover your blind spots:

1.    Seek External Perspectives: Having someone in your corner is the quickest way to score a “knockout.” “Cornermen or Coaches”, help you to see your blind spots. By seeking feedback from someone who has your best interest in mind, you move toward your best hopes faster with more clarity and confidence, while building resiliency.

2.    Building a Dynamic Diversified Team of Experts: We all have various skills sets and limitations, on what we can individually accomplish at an exceptional level. Innovation and exploration of new ideas cannot happen without an uncomfortable exchange of ideas with your team. Creative tensions are one of the primary conditions for innovation and exploration to create excellence. A powerful and diverse team of dedicated experts beats silos every time.

3.    Conduct a 360 review of your Leadership Skills: “What’s it like to be on the other side of me?” This is a question John Maxwell likes leaders to ask of themselves and others. What do people think about your leadership team? What do they excel at and where can they improve? Developing a leadership culture of trust starts with the ability to see things from someone else’s perspective. Start to build buy in and collaboration by asking for new ideas and additional input.

4.    Run a SWOT Of Your Company: Knowing your organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats will help you prioritize new opportunities to gain a competitive edge. Humility leads to Mastery. Asking “What am I missing?” will accelerate your growth.

5.    Measure What Matters Most – Building a business around a Supersonic jet like the Concord had to be a thrill in many ways. What wasn’t thrilling were the billions of dollars it lost over the nearly 30 years it operated. In today’s world we can collect an infinite amount of data. However, we need to collect and analyze the data, that is most important for business growth and profitability. By creating a culture of open and honest communication within your team, you encourage employees to share their observations, concerns, and ideas. Their insights can help you to identify blind spots and learn to measure what matters most.

Remember, identifying blind spots is an ongoing process, and it's important to be receptive to feedback and proactive in addressing them. By continuously seeking insights and staying open to learning, you can minimize blind spots and make better-informed decisions for your business.

Recently, we were working with a client in identifying their systems based blind spots, in their business. We conducted an independent 360 review, by speaking to executive level team members with a confidential reporting process. Based on this feedback, the client was able to see where they could expand opportunities while addressing specific concerns within their operational systems. Using this confidential open-ended feedback from their executive team, the client was able to make more informed decisions. In addressing these operational concerns, the client was able to create clarity to innovate by exploring the offering of new services that dramatically enhanced customer service key performance indicators. These changes lead to an annual increase in profitability by 25 %. Subsequently, these changes created more overall growth and subsequently more personal wealth.    

Jeff Smith and Alisa Sattler are the dynamic coaching duet of Raising My Game Coaching. With over 80 years of business experience, we specialize in supporting entrepreneurs to grow and expand their business and personal wealth. Working with you to minimize your business blind spots is one of the ways that we can work with you to increase your personal wealth and business profitability. To learn more about how we can help you, please schedule a complementary call at www.raisingmygame.com

With gratitude,

Alisa and Jeff