Andy Elliott warns about leadership "blind spots" that quietly undermine team performance. In this chunk he introduces the first major blind spot — caring so much that leaders tolerate underperformance — and links it to problems of inconsistent standards, delayed difficult conversations, over-control, poor delegation, and losing high performers. He offers diagnostic self-assessment prompts and stresses that truth-telling with grace (feedback + opportunity to improve, then let go if necessary) prevents harming both the team and the underperformer.
Chapters
Once I understood this, I was like, man, I've got to stop doing this because I'm actually hurting people. Leadership blind spots, assessments, we're going to do that. Okay, so this is the hidden threats to your team's success. Now this stuff isn't really talked about very often. So this is not stuff that is seen basically on the metrics or KPIs and we're going to get on that stuff. These are things that you really don't see, but they're silent killers to your business. Sometimes the greatest threat to your leadership aren't the big fires that you can see, it's the small cracks that you can't see. Every leader has blind spots, but the best leaders actively work to identify and address them all. If you think about it, in business, the bigger you are, the more separated you are with the actual day to day of your business, which is something that you want to be, you want to be able to delegate and create true leaders and all of that, right? But sometimes we create leaders and they're really good at leading up, which means that, hey, you know what they do? They follow instructions, they do what you want them to do. They're really good at telling you, you're really good at telling them. And they follow through with things and they're really good at leading up, they're not good at leading down. Which means they're not meant to be leaders because people do not respect them. So we're gonna go into the two deadly blind spots right now. Blind spot number one, I care so much about people that I started tolerating underperformance. These leaders appear to have the best intentions, but they're actually destroying teams. This is one that I, that was my biggest, biggest problem, okay? I have a massive heart. Once somebody comes and decides to work for me, I'm like, dude, like, I wanna make sure that we take care. I want to make sure we give them the chances they came in. I take it very personally if they don't make it. They came here to do well, but they I was tolerating under performance. So we talk about the golden handcuffs. When you have these people that are entitled. Now this became a golden handcuff too care so much that these people were underperforming and what was happening. We're going to get into that. Why? That's another dangerous thing. People don't talk about this part. Okay? So I wanted to make this. Once I understood this, I was like, man, I've got to stop doing this because I'm actually hurting people. If I'm a coach and I'm training somebody who's a professional athlete, let's just say they're swinging and their swing is off and it's affecting the team. And I just. He's such a nice guy, but I told him this swing is after the swinging. He's been swaying for years. If I don't tell him the swing is off, what is that doing for job? It's not good. As a coach, you have to tell him the truth, right? So if you think about it, you have to be that leader that tells the truth but is also full of grace and believes in people. Give people the tools and opportunity to know and understand what they're doing wrong. Give them the chance to go and fix it. But if they don't, you've got to be prepared to let them go. What feels like love is avoidance in disguise. And I'm going to tell you what the red flags and what you do. What happens when you don't do this. Okay, so self assessment questions. Rate yourself 1 to 5. 1 is never and 5 always. I delayed a difficult performance conversations because I don't want to hurt their feelings. If you're protecting their feelings, you're limited their impact potential. Think about that. You're limiting their impact potential. If you're protecting their feelings, you can't do that. I make excuses for my underperformance on my team. Wow, they're so nice. They mean well. They're a slow learner. Oh, they're my friend. I've known them since school. What does it sound like? Habits. I show up to all the birthday parties. They put on my kinda present on his birthday. That's so nice. I can't tell him he's a performing feelings. My high performers complain about carrying the extra weight. It lowers the standard. Eventually your high performers will look for success somewhere else. They'll quit. I apply standards inconsistently across my team. You can't enforce anything. Nothing's taken seriously because it doesn't apply to everybody. And then you complain why people aren't showing up. I hope performance problems will fix themselves. This is why I keep talking about what conversations are you avoiding? That if you were to have them would change everything. It's very important they don't fix themselves. It never happens. They just get worse. Okay, I've kept someone too long because I care about them. So you're actually hurting them. You're enabling them. Let them go where they can shine. I was hitting the goals by hurting the team. These leaders care so much that they're afraid to trust. Rather than empowering others, they become overly controlling. Nobody cares as much as I care. Nobody will do it as good as I do. Nobody will like, man, it will take. I train somebody and then they just mess it up. That was me. I was doing so much that I wasn't empowering our team to grow and building other leaders because of it. That was hard. Think about it. Control does not equal growth. It doesn't. What feels like control to you is also interpreted as distrust by your team. So this is how you know that you're part of this. I find it easier to do things myself rather than delegate. Is this you? My team waits for my approval on small decisions. Do you want them to check on you for everything and approve everything? Sometimes we just want to have that control. It is so hard to let it go. I struggle to let others lead projects independently. Sometimes we delegate tasks and we don't delegate authority. If you want somebody to be creative and think like an owner, you're going to have to delegate some authority. Hey, I'm gonna put you and you're gonna manage this and you take care of this. I'm gonna go take care of myself. No, you're gonna have to tell Joe what your expectations are, how to handle some things. Give him a blueprint of what you're looking for and expecting and some deadlines of what to do. And then all of a sudden, as he's doing them, you're creating that. You're giving him a pathway to win, not being like, hey, Joe, I put you in this position. You didn't do anything, dude, I expected you to do this and that. Well, then you know what you wanted. I, I frequently modify or redo my team's work. High potential people leave my team for more autonomy, say they need to feel important and trusted. That's the thing. If a leader, if you have somebody, an employee that has leadership capabilities and you don't develop them as a leader, they will not stay with you. They won't. They need to feel like they can grow with you. They do. Give them the power to lead. Give them the power to lead. So all the good ideas seem to come from me, not the team. That's huge. If all the good ideas and everything that happens in your business, you're the one that's coming up with them. There's a problem. You don't own your business. Your business owns you. That's the difference. Your business owns you. You're never, ever, ever going to be able to take a vacation without thinking about work. You're never going to be able to go on a date with your spouse without thinking about a phone call coming through. You're never going to be able to do anything because your business owns you. That's the truth.
