{"id":439,"date":"2013-05-25T15:13:19","date_gmt":"2013-05-25T13:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/?p=439"},"modified":"2014-11-25T12:36:46","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T10:36:46","slug":"3-ways-to-avoid-blind-spot-collisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/?p=439","title":{"rendered":"3 WAYS TO AVOID BLIND SPOT COLLISIONS"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Carey Nieuwhof<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Three questions you can ask as a leader that give other people permission to help you see your blind spots<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So how clearly are you seeing things as a leader?<\/span><\/p>\n

Really?<\/span><\/p>\n

Truthfully, there are important things in leadership that all of us miss. One of the toughest challenges for those of us who lead is that every leader develops blind spots.<\/span><\/p>\n

A blind spot is simply defined as an area where your view is obstructed.<\/span><\/p>\n

You just don\u2019t see things that are there. All of us miss things that are clear to any other person, but not to us.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s why you turn around first to check beside you when making a lane change.
\nIt\u2019s why you crane your neck at a stadium so you can see the field unobstructed.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s why you trimmed that tree near your front window so you can see the view.<\/span><\/p>\n

You want to see clearly.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that most leaders want to create problems, it\u2019s that they don\u2019t see the problems they\u2019re creating. We\u2019re blind to them.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I know I am.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some blind spots I\u2019ve identified in myself over the years:<\/span><\/p>\n

My personal\u00a0style<\/strong> (which tends to land more on the truth side than the grace side) can unintentionally hurt or alienate people.
\nCasual comments I make can be\u00a0mistaken<\/strong> as \u2018directives\u2019 by people around me, leading them to act on things I was simply asking questions about. (I\u2019m the senior leader in our church and my words weigh more than I\u2019d like them to sometimes.)
\nWhile being selective is important, I can sometimes be too picky<\/strong> about who I choose to move into senior leadership\u00a0\u2014 sometimes backlogging the development of other leaders.
\nMy attention to detail<\/strong> on matters I\u2019m passionate about can be so minute that it becomes discouraging to some.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did I learn about all these things?<\/span><\/p>\n

I would love to say I was perceptive enough to figure them out on my own, or that the insight came as a result of enlightened thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

I learned about all of these because someone told me. I wasn\u2019t clever enough to see them on my own. That\u2019s why they\u2019re called blind spots.<\/span><\/p>\n

The longer you lead, the more important it is to develop a reliable, honest, accurate feedback loop. (This post from Jeff Brodie<\/a> is a must read for those of you trying to help a leader see a blind spot.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the tension: The longer you lead and the larger your organization becomes, the less people will be naturally willing to tell you things you might not like to hear.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do you overcome that?<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are\u00a0three questions you can ask as a leader that give other people permission to help you see your blind spots:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

1. What am I doing that\u2019s not helping our mission?<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

I try to ask this question regularly to the people around me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if the answer is, \u201cI can\u2019t see anything right now,\u201d making a habit of asking the question creates a culture of openness and mutual support.<\/span><\/p>\n

It also signals to the team that the leader doesn\u2019t think he or she is infallible.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. What do I need to do to make sure you feel comfortable telling me what you see?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

This second question is so necessary because often leaders won\u2019t want to answer the first question truthfully. They\u2019re too afraid.<\/span><\/p>\n

It takes a lot of nerve for someone to give \u2018honest\u2019 feedback to a leader. When a leader is defensive, dismissive or even indifferent, the leader makes it so easy for the staff member to never speak up again.<\/span><\/p>\n

By asking this second question, you show them you want feedback and you realize you might not always be easy to approach. And if you are easy to approach, you\u2019ll find out soon enough. Either way, this question builds trust.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. How can I help make it better?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Your job as a leader isn\u2019t just to know something is wrong, it\u2019s to leverage your influence or power to help make it right.<\/span><\/p>\n

When your team member knows you really care about a good solution and are willing to do what you can to make it better, it goes a long way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Questions like this can create an open, honest culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

They will make you a better leader, and help your organization push past leadership lids.<\/span><\/p>\n

What questions have helped you overcome blind spots? What are some tension points you continue to face? <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.churchleaders.com\/pastors\/pastor-articles\/167695-carey-nieuwhof-ways-to-avoid-blind-spot-collisions.html?p=3<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Carey Nieuwhof \u00a0 Three questions you can ask as a leader that give other people permission to help you see your blind spots   So how clearly are you seeing things as a leader? Really? Truthfully, there are important things in leadership that all of us miss. One of the toughest challenges for those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artikels"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/parowvallei-oos.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}