Uncovering Your Blind Spots?

No matter how self aware we think we are as leaders, we all still have our blind spots. The key question, therefore is are you doing enough to uncover them? And that's exactly what we're going to talk about in today's episode of the Leader's Kit Bag. I'm going to share with you some tips and ideas to help you do just that. And those very same tips will also help reduce the number of missed opportunities or missteps within your team or entire business even. Hey, I'm Ben Morton. I'm a leadership trainer, executive coach and keynote speaker. And everything I do is designed to help create a world where where everyone can go to work feeling inspired to give their absolute best, whilst going home to their loved ones at the end of each and every day feeling both recognized for what they do and appreciated for who they are. Let me share a personal example from my business around a potential misstep. As you probably know, around nine months ago I launched Ben AI, my AI clone. What you may not know is the original name for Ben AI was Ben in your pocket. We've been running with that name for several months in the preparation, the build and getting ready for launch, until a former client of mine who oozes self confidence and who I know pretty well and who knows me very well in an email exchange said, Ben, have you tested, have you market tested that name? Which I hadn't really, or maybe to a tiny degree, and suddenly when I thought about it, the name Ben in your pocket, whilst it logically made sense, suddenly started to sound a little bit weird and icky to use that phrase, and it got changed to Ben AI. I was sharing that information with my relatively new assistant and her response was, oh God, I'm so glad you said that. I've been thinking it was a bit weird, but I didn't really know if I should tell you or if it was my place to tell you or what you would think if I did. So why does that happen? Why do people hold back from giving their perspective, sharing insights or potentially highlighting a blind spot to us? Ultimately, it comes down to psychological safety. When psychological safety exists, people feel comfortable sharing their perspective, challenging a thought process, process or decision, even given a different perspective, or sharing their view even when their view isn't linked to their area of expertise or their job role in the business. And psychological safety can normally be lacking for one of two reasons in my view. One is it just doesn't exist within the organisation. It isn't a the organisation doesn't have a culture of psychological safety. The other reason is that psychological safety could be building as a result of a new working relationship. Now, I like to think, and I'm fairly confident this is the case, although it might be a blind spot, but I like to think it was the latter. In my case, the psychological safety, or the level of psychological safety was building alongside the relationship with my new assistant. So what can we do to accelerate it? How can we accelerate it? Well, one thing we can do is set some expectations around ways of working early on. You could invite feedback and that works to a degree. But also remember, as leaders, people pay far more attention to what we do and how we react than what we say, so that might not make that much difference. The alternative is to take a leaf out of the parenting handbook and really reward, appreciate and recognise the behaviours that you want to see. So in my case, when my assistant shared that insight or perspective with me, I made a point of saying, I really, really appreciate that. Thank you for sharing it. I really wish you'd shared that sooner. And going forward, if you've got thoughts like that, please just tell me straight away. It's really valuable for me. That will make the difference. And again, when people share those insights, do the same again. We need to put the focus on the behaviors and ways of working that we want. That's it for today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. As always, I hope it's been useful. Until next time, look after yourself, look after those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead, and until then, lead on.