We all have blind spots, but most of us are – as the saying goes – blind to them! The difference between good leaders and truly powerful leaders who get results is the awareness of blind-spots.

Powerful leaders are self-aware of their blind spots.

Developing the self-awareness to identify blind-spots usually isn’t organic, so the executive leadership coaches at Awesome Journey have developed a list of the Top 10 Blind-Spots we see the most with our clients:

 

1. Being Stuck – We all get stuck sometimes. It’s that feeling of not being happy in your current situation, but being uncertain where to go next.

Powerful Leaders Know:

• State of Awareness: they recognize that they’re stuck because they are self-aware of their emotional state (feel frustration or anger and a fight or flight state-of-mind).
• State of Action: they move from being stuck back into action by asking for support from others in less than 24 hours.

 

2. Asking for Support – Leaders tend to believe that they need to figure everything thing out on their own all the time.

Powerful Leaders Know: Vulnerability = Power and Action

• Being able to say, “I don’t know” means they are curious to explore new possibilities.
• They have a support network that is committed to holding them accountable to their big goals

 

3. Emotional Triggers – It is important to understand how your environment affects you

Powerful Leaders Know: Being self-aware of what their emotional triggers are, gives them the power to shut them down and view situations from a more objective and positive mindset.

 

4. Relationship to Language – What you say and how you say it matters. When your language is generative (action-oriented) vs. descriptive (not action-oriented) you speak with more intentionality and power.

Powerful Leaders Know:

• Making clear requests of others leads to better outcomes
• Using the language of accountability will generate action with others
• Creating clear agreements with others leads to clarity of expectations and a stronger relationship
• Designing every conversation with a clear intention of the desired outcome

 

5. Relationship to Time – We all have the same amount of time each day, yet some people achieve more each day than others. When your relationship to time is proactive (planned) vs reactive (wing-it) you become the owner of your time.

Powerful Leaders Know:

• What their time is worth per hour
• Have a “Chief Accountability System” – they book time for their tasks and activities to turn promises into priorities because it is in their calendar

 

6. Intentional Listening – When you understand how your listening impacts your interactions with others you are able connect to create.

Powerful Leaders Know: The power of listening with the intention to connect and co-create with others vs listening to fix problems

 

7. Impact of Your Daily Practices – Daily practices are the routines we all have that set us up for success.

Powerful Leaders Know: How their practices keep them focused, productive and centered:

3 daily practices that are common for Powerful Leaders:

• Meditation/Deep Breathing to support quality thinking time
• Self-Reflection – what worked well today and what was a frustration today
• Power of a Pause – when emotionally triggered they pause before they respond

 

8. Coordinating Action through Others – No leader can do it all; at least not if they want to grow. Powerful leaders understand the power of delegation.

Powerful Leaders Know: When they delegate responsibilities to others they coordinate action by being:

• Thorough with details
• Creating clear agreements with others
• Holding others accountable for their performance by following up in an appropriate time frame

 

9. Negative Self -Talk – Everyone engages in negative self-talk occasionally. It is important to be aware of when you are doing it and how it impacts your daily performance.

Powerful Leaders Know:

• What their dominate negative self-talk is – “I am not enough or I am right”
• How negative self-talk can shut them down in any conversation
• How to minimize it and bounce back

 

10. Power of Their Personal Mission Statement – Your personal mission statement is your “Why” (why you do everything you do). You mission statement drives all your actions, so it is a very important statement.

Powerful Leaders Know: What their mission statement is and how they are living it.

Check out “Know Your Why” by Michael Jr.

 

Challenge: 

List 3 blind-spots you have and how you could overcome them.

 

In Great Leaders Have a Strategic Business Model: Part One we discussed the four components of a Strategic Business Model:

• Client Value Proposition
• Profit Formula
• Key Resources
• Key Support Structures

Now we want to look at some companies who have created Innovative Business Models that have challenged long-held, core beliefs about how to create value for their clients, and in the process revolutionized their industries.

NETFLIX: What if I could bring client videos via the web and charge them a monthly fee?

AMAZON WEB SERVICES: What if you didn’t need to own IT infrastructure to operate your business?

UBER: What if we transformed the pricing and the distribution model for people who utilize taxi services?

AIRBNB: What if we modernized the hospitality industry model by getting people to offer spare rooms in their homes as hotel rooms for daily rent via an extraordinary website?

APPLE: What if we revolutionized the retail experience for clients purchasing electronics?

ZAPPOS: What if we made it easy for “Professional Women, who don’t have time to go shopping, to buy their shoes online?”

WARBY PARKER EYEWEAR: What if we made it easy for anyone to buy quality eye glasses online for affordable prices?

TED TALKS & YOUTUBE: What if we made it easy for anyone to learn from experts online for free?

IKEA: What if we could make it easy for “People who live on a budget, and need space up and usable tomorrow”?

TARGET: What if people who shopped in discount stores would pay extra for designer products?

 

CHALLENGE:

Set aside 4 hours with your Executive Leadership Team and challenge every component of your current Business Model to identify new ideas of how to new create value for your current and future clients.