Have you ever looked at a 3D picture and not been able to see it in three
dimension? I remember the first time I looked at one, it took me a few moments
to be able to defocus my eyes and stop using my traditional ‘2D seeing
paradigm’. Can you recall a time when you were making lots of efforts towards
attaining a specific goal only to find later that your mental construct of the
challenge was erroneous and as soon as you altered your approach, success came
easily.
We all have blind spots – they are part of the human condition. But when
leaders and people in authority and power have blind spots, it matters. We all
have patterns, habits, and beliefs that limit us. The challenge is that we
generally can’t see how those thought-patterns and beliefs hold us back and
what we can’t see tends to sabotage our efforts. Blind spots can severely
impact an executive’s strategic vision, their course of action, and their rate
of success. They impact decision-making and creativity (or lack thereof) in
solving problems and they act to limit the strategic initiatives we are willing
to consider. They even affect how we relate to others – hampering our
leadership effectiveness, our political adeptness, and our executive presence.
A popular model of blind spots is known as Johari’s window, a model
created by J. Luft and H. Ingram in 1955. In their model, the blind spot refers
to an aspect of our personality that is not known to self but is apparent to
others. For example, others may notice
that you lack eye contact when talking to people while you are completely
unaware of this. The notion of a blind
spot incorporates more than a simple lack of understanding; it includes the
sense that the person does not want to expand their understanding by listening
to views or opinions they in some way ‘dislike’. The lack of impartiality and
refusal to try to understand implies that we are biased towards accepting
certain kinds of information and ‘blind’ with regards to other kinds of
information. This is not to say that we
have a blind spot whenever we disagree with any idea presented to us. Blind
spots only become a problem when they prevent us from adapting to changes in
our environment. It doesn’t matter what our experience in life or in business
has been, what our background is, our age, level of education, or intelligence.
We’re all subject to blind spots. Executives, like everyone else, acquire blind
spots from life, but as leaders, they suffer additional blind spots caused by
their need to operate within the corporate environment.
The fact is, knowing yourself isn't as easy as
it sounds. We all have our blind spots, no matter how brilliant and
accomplished we are. Self-knowledge, at its most basic level, involves
recognizing thoughts and emotions, decisions and biases, strengths and
weaknesses of oneself in real time. When executives train themselves to
recognize and examine the reasons for their actions and reactions, they are
better prepared to evaluate complex situations and make clear decisions.
Make no mistake: your
emotions affect others, whether you are aware of them or not. Operating
with no awareness of them is like trying to play a football match with both
your shoelaces tied together.
The collapse of Barings Bank
In 1995 Nick Leeson became renowned as the person who single-handedly
brought down a bank. Leeson had bought futures in the Singapore money market.
Futures contracts enable you, for a cost up front, to buy or sell shares
commodities or currencies at a future date for a fixed price. If, in the meantime,
the market price rises above the one you fixed, you are in profit; if it goes
below your fixed price, you are in loss. Leeson bought futures and for a while
made profits. However, the price started to go against him and started to make
huge paper losses. However, he was able to conceal this fact to many of his
senior executives. Leeson, interviewed by Judith Rawnsley for her book ‘Going
for broke’ claimed he got away with it for so long because his senior
executives were too busy and too self-important to really focus on the issues
at hand, alluring blind spots for executives. Leeson reported that he found it
incredibly easy to distract his senior executives into believing a lie as he
made them feel they were going to become amazingly wealthy. The alternative was
uncertainty and the fear of losing their bonuses and their prestige. The
Barings Bank story was a classic case of blind spots affecting an entire
organization, contributing to the downfall of a company that had been trading
for over a century.
Blind spots show up in our beliefs, our thoughts, and our actions. These
beliefs are self-limiting and are often at odds with the goals we say we want
to achieve. Our beliefs are formed – good or bad, limiting or expansive – as we
develop from childhood into adulthood. We formulate these beliefs from the
stories we invent as we seek to explain events. Unfortunately, we view these
events through the lens of immaturity and without having all the facts. These
flawed stories act to limit us and sometimes even come to define us. The key to
moving past these limiting beliefs is to replace them with beliefs formed from
fresh perspectives.
Leaders often fall into the trap of continuing to do what has worked in
the past. They have achieved results with their vision, talents and abilities;
yet these are no guarantee of continued success in the current changing
workplace environment. Author and founder of The Integral Institute, Ken
Wilber, says: “Today's
business and world leaders are faced with unprecedented complexities and rates
of change in markets and social conditions. This places extreme pressure on
leaders to develop all aspects of themselves to the highest degree possible….
their cognitive, emotional, inter-personal, and ethical capacities, as well as
their fundamental sense of self…. Only those who develop to this level…. will
be successfully equipped to manage a profitable, sustainable growth business or
effective organization.”
When it comes to our thoughts, the same thinking that got us where we
are, can’t take us further. If we keep thinking in the same way, we’ll keep
coming up with the same kinds of solutions. Our thinking becomes stagnant
without outside stimulation. Albert Einstein famously said “The significant problems we
face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were when we created
them.” The only way to expand one’s thinking is to
seek out new perspectives, which of course, comes from seeking outside input. When
we get attached to the process of how we imagine attaining success, we become
blind to other possibilities. And when that happens, we’re like a fly
incessantly beating its wings against a pane of glass trying to reach its goal.
It doesn’t matter how hard we try if we’re pursuing success in the wrong way.
When we’re not willing to consider other courses of action, we limit our
success. How does one distinguish between dogged determination and blindness?
It usually requires input from an outside, unbiased source.
Blind spots within the corporate world arise from two sources. The first
source is corporate culture – corporate culture in a general sense as well as
the specific “culture” of an organization. We hold beliefs about how
organizations should function, how they should be structured, and which
behaviors are valued. Every organization has its own special culture – either
by design or by default. And while a corporate culture can be an asset, it
often acts to create blind spots with executives. The second source of
executive blind spots stems from the need of leaders to achieve productivity
through others. As executives, we run the risk of our thoughts and beliefs
being influenced by the thoughts and beliefs of the people under our guidance.
The Evergreen project
A study of over 160 companies, between 1986 and 1996, examined what
variables helped companies outperform their competitors. In reporting the
research, known as “The Evergreen Project”, the authors showed that senior
executives directly influence a company’s profitability not only through their
technical competencies but also, if not more so, through their ability to learn
and to spread learning. Successful leaders would (a) build relationships with
people at all levels of the organization and inspire the rest of the management
team to do the same and (b) spot opportunities before competitors and address
problems before they became nightmares.
Both of these skills relate directly to a leader’s learning,
accomplished by being on the front line and updating his/her living knowledge
of operations and customers. The most successful leaders in ‘The Evergreen
project’ spent time regularly touring sites, talking to people and absorbing
information, ideas and new developments. They would then disseminate their
learning throughout the company, overcoming internal rivalries and divisions,
spreading learning and a willingness to seek change and innovation. A leader’s
ability to recognise opportunities and address problems is directly related to
their ability to confront potential blind spots.
Have a look at these common blind spots and give yourself an honest
rating on each of them:
1. Under-communicating
strategic direction and priorities
Priorities are never as clear as we think. In our world of
hyper-information availability and constant communication, multiple sources of
input drastically dilute your staff’s focus on top priorities and
organizational goals. Consider it a competition for an employee’s mindshare –
your company’s strategic goals versus email, day-to-day business, side
projects, voicemail, family, friends and the latest local or international
political upheaval.
An effective leader approaches gaining mindshare for priorities like any
other advertising campaign – by increasing volume and frequency to cut through
the clutter. Every meeting, every one-on-one, should start by aligning the
current topic with the top priorities, creating a clear and compelling message.
2. Poorly
communicating expectations and objectives
Without clear definitions of success, management and employees can be
aiming for very different levels of performance, creating significant risk in
the execution of strategic projects. There is nothing that sucks energy out of
a team more than thinking they’ve met or exceeded key objectives, only to be
told the expectations were much different.
Starting with a clear vision of a project and how it relates to overall
priorities, great leaders set precise targets, timeframes and other explicit
measures at the beginning. After a short duration of time, they need to check
back in order to ensure alignment with that vision. This not only prevents any
drift from the goals, but also allows for corrections and an ability to add
resources if necessary before a small issue becomes a big one.
3. Not
‘Walking the Talk’
A very common blind spot of leaders at all echelons of society is not
walking the talk. This occurs when leaders are not aware of their values and
behave in a mode of ‘Do what I say not what I do’.
Our behavior patterns are so unconsciously ingrained that too many
leaders flout the very behaviours and values they profess will bring success to
their team. There is nothing more discouraging to team members in witnessing
their leader(s) saying one thing and doing another.
Self-knowledge is the basic cornerstone of
success and one of the fundamental characteristics of good leaders. Ask
yourself: What are your blind spots? Believe me, we all have
them! How well and how often do you recognize your own array of thoughts,
feelings, values, biases and emotional state? How accurately do you
assess your job performance or your relationship with different
individuals? How often do you get or are surprised by feedback on your
performance? How intuitive are you?
Breaking free of limiting thoughts and beliefs is essential for
achieving the results you want; however, there are some inherent challenges in
releasing blind spots. Many blind spots are so deeply ingrained within our
make-up, we’re no longer aware they control us. Without outside perspective,
these beliefs appear to be truths. It’s important to keep in mind that
generally these limiting beliefs are YOUR truths rather than THE truth. It is
critical that you identify and release the self-limiting blind spots which hold
you back if real progress is to be made.
This is an area where a 360
degree feedback process, an honest look at your history of successes and
failures and work with an experienced coach can be invaluable.
Quantum Vision’s
‘Transformational Leadership’ may provide you with such a process. Contact us
for details.
