Blindspots and lack of self-awareness are real issues business owners (and everyone else too) face today. Self-awareness is a not a skill we’re deliberately taught and just because we might consider ourselves introspective, doesn’t mean that we’re actually any good at introspection! Thus, when it comes to our blindspots just trying to be more self-reflecting doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll correctly identify our own blindspots or help improve our self-awareness. In this blog we’ll discuss the blindspots most common to business owners and give you ideas on how you can spot them.
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Drum roll please, a list of common blindspots business owners have…
Emotional Attachment
Emotional attachment is a common blindspot we deal with as business owners. Whether it’s becoming attached to a specific project or an idea, emotional attachment can lead to going down the wrong path or refusing to acknowledge market realities. It’s an easy way for our judgement to be clouded and can be difficult to deal with if we are even able to identify it.
Action Bias
If we wanted to distill down how people behave we could make the argument that some people have an action default and some people have an inaction default. Yet, it’s likely that many owners have a default towards action. It’s awfully difficult to get a business up and running without having a lean into taking action. Action bias is a blindspot that is common in owners because of this. Action bias means owners will often take action before carefully considering all options – after all, any movement in a direction is better than no movement at all, right? Well, maybe, maybe not. When action bias becomes an issue it can show up in the form of impulsiveness, rash decisions or emotional decisions all of which can cause or contribute to serious business problems. Unfortunately, many owners are unaware of this blindspot and consistently react instead of being more deliberate and responsive.
Work-Life Imbalance
Business owners commonly struggle with work-life imbalance and yet many times they are unaware of it as a problem. Imbalance can show up in relationships, in our physical, mental and spiritual health and it can show up in the health of our business as well. We don’t believe balance needs to be 50/50 and balance for you may mean something different than balance for me. It’s equally important to understand what balance works for you and when to identify when you’re out of balance.
While there are many other common blindspots owners struggle with, you should be able to get a sense of these blindspots and maybe even identify when you have fallen victim to one or more of these. Ultimately, the onus is on us as owners to be able to develop better self-awareness and gird ourselves against the dangers of blindspots. How do we do it then?
We suggest not trying to do it on your own. There are many instances where working on our own and independently can lead to amazing results, typically, this is not one of those instances. Self-reflection is incredibly difficult to do on our own and we’re just as likely to exacerbate the problem as we are to mitigate it. For addressing blindspots we strongly recommend working with others and here are our top choices.
Feedback Team: Getting honest and transparent feedback is difficult. Those closest to us will always deal with their own biases and those too far removed from us can’t offer truly insightful feedback. Building a team of objectively honest peers or colleagues that can offer feedback is one highly effective way to combat blindspots.
Owner Advisory Boards: Blindspots can show up in many different ways, one of the most effective ways to disrupt blindspots is to gain a number of different perspectives. This can help illuminate the unknown and bring more self-awareness to us.
If you’re looking for a group of peers to help you with your blindspots we encourage you to check out IVOLVE + THRIVE. We have new boards launching in January of 2024! Find out more information about our Owner Advisory Boards here.
How do you deal with blindspots?
Let us know your thoughts, you can email us at info@jbandthedoctor.com!
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