There is nothing unusual about having blind spots. Most business leaders have them, says Robert Bruce Shaw who authored the influential book, Leadership Blind Spots: How Successful Leaders Identify and Overcome the Weaknesses That Matter.
Usual though the phenomenon may be, it’s important to acknowledge blind spots and take corrective measures. A blog post from Know Your Company highlights three important blind spots in your leadership approach you may be missing. The post also provides related statistics and suggests ways to spot the issues and possible solutions.
Here, we take a closer look at them.
Watching over a whole spectrum of things, it’s easy for a leader to get blindsided
Not knowing why your employees aren’t giving their best
Sometimes, it may be that your employees are not doing their best work, and you aren’t aware of this.
The Know your Company post says a significant percentage of employees they surveyed said something held them back from delivering their best performance. In such a scenario, the possibility of attrition also goes high. One solution is to offer the employees meaningful incentives like opportunities to improve themselves.
Before providing the solution, you should of course know if the problem exists in the first place. Taking the time to know if something is preventing your employees from functioning at their full potential would be worth it in this regard.
On the other hand, if you have had the experience of different employees not functioning at par for a while, it could be that you pathologically hold unreasonable expectations. This is an example of what Shaw means when he says clues to your blind spots may be found in your history.
Lack of meaningful feedback
It’s not enough to have a skilled resource in-house. You should also give him/her the opportunities to keep improving. Providing them with meaningful feedback about their work is one simple yet overlooked way to do this.
According to the Know your Company post, more than 80 percent of employees say they need more feedback about their work. Are you giving your employees enough feedback? And do you know if they seek more feedback from you? These questions may not be as profound or brimming with philosophical value as Shakespeare's “To be or not to be?” But for a leader, these are important things to ask nonetheless.
Also, while providing feedback, make sure you are open to feedback from your employees as well.
Connected to this is another blind spot- one which Posy Gering, the business transition coach and the writer of The Next You among other books points out:the habit of covering for a weak employee who is underperforming, maybe because s/he is yet to learn a skill to perform better. Instead of providing them with honest feedback, the leader may get blindsided and not see that the situation merits feedback. S/he may keep hoping that the employee would improve without pointing the fact out.
It’s important to acknowledge the under-performance and give the necessary feedback and guidance in such situations.
Missing the fact that the company is behind the curve on certain aspects
Rolling stones gather no moss, it’s said. For an organization, to avoid stagnation it should always be open to new ideas. These ideas- out of the box, and sometimes even radical- often come from the employees. Even if the ideas may not be relevant in the current phase of the organization’s journey, it’s good not to dismiss them outright. Doing so would only leave the organization behind the curve in some area of operations.
This is the third potential blindspot the post mentions- missing the fact that your company is not quite up there on something or the other. You should encourage the employees to note down and share their ideas, even if it means challenging the status quo within the organization.
How Temenos helps tackle blind spots
As a company that enables organizational transformation, Temenos uses unique methods developed with over 25 years of consultancy experience and enlists certified coaches who have aided a multitude of professionals to overcome their blinds spots and lead with clarity of vision.
One of the key elements in the Temenos repository that helps you identify and eliminate blind spots is the Clean Slate session. The session is designed to help you overcome any misapprehensions or mental blocks that may be keeping you from evolving as a change agent. These obstacles may include blind spots you haven’t noticed before.
Influence Maps is a tool developed by Temenos, of which Clean Slate is a part
The Clean Slate session in turn forms just one part of the Temenos Vision Lab or TVL. This latter is conducted so change agents could define their own personal vision, and also the collective goal towards which a team or organization should move. In the process, blind spots, distractions and other misgivings which may be hampering growth- both yours and your organization’s-could be overcome.
If that sounds like a good idea, you can always look up a Temenos Vision Lab session that’s frequently conducted around the world and online. To find a date and venue of your convenience, please follow this link and choose ‘Temenos Vision Lab’ from the “Event Type” drop-down menu.
Banner image: Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash
For change agents and leaders, not to benefit from meaningful events and gatherings is a missed opportunity! We invite you to indulge in some of the most transformational events from Temenos; designed with hard-earned understanding, organized just for you.
Temenos Vision Lab- Online ( June 29, 2018)
We invite you to this special gathering, which brings together a group of wonderful people who fill workplaces with joy and energy. By connecting with each other, you embark on a journey that leads to better clarity about the changes you seek, gain collaboration opportunities and leave with a concrete action plan.
Temenos Vision Lab- Amsterdam, Netherlands( Nov 2, 2018)
Another venue to take an exquisite inner journey, to find your true Vision.
Temenos Effect Gathering 2018- Bengaluru, India(Dec 8 to Dec 9, 2018)
An event dedicated to the idea of personal mastery, for nurturing your beautiful self, for change agents and leaders to become their true selves.
For more details, visit our website - https://www.visiontemenos.com/events
