How Leaders Unintentionally Lie To Themselves

As we've been conducting business assessments, we've started to observe some common blind spots. Every entrepreneur we've worked with- and let's be real, every human ever- has blind spots.

It's normal. It's the nature of having a brain that loves to recognize and identify patterns, even when there aren't actually patterns there. Our brains skip over gaps and make connections-that-couldn't-actually-happen because that's what brains love to do.

Here's three blind spots that we've seen (and you probably have in some degree):

"If I close five sales this quarter, I'll have big money."

How long does it take to close a sale? How big is a typical sale? Have you closed three sales in a quarter before? Is this a time of the year that your market typically buys? How many leads will it take to make five sales?

This blind spot can appear when you develop a logical statement (If This, Then That) and imagine that the world will actually follow that logic.

It's all the assumptions bundled in the IF that's ripe for blind spots. Unpacking assumptions will uncover blind spots.

"I can use the free version for now."

Time is an expensive and invisible cost. It seems like the easy resource to spend when other resources such as financial or human capital are in short supply.

If you spend time frivolously, it's no better than spending money frivolously.

The blind spot manifests when you are unaware that you are spending time, rather than making a financial investment OR choosing not to do that thing at all.

"I'm waiting to make a decision."

We all can recognize the tradeoffs around making a decision. There are also tradeoffs to not making a decision.

When you delay making a choice, it could be because of an emotional blind spot: you might fearful of regretting your choice.

This manifests when you look at a decision through a scarcity mindset (what will my pain be?) rather than an abundance mindset (what opportunities will this present?).

If you're waiting to choose, ask the Five Whys to understand if it because of fear (scarcity) or that the opportunity isn't compelling enough (abundance). And if you can't Five Why yourself to an answer, then ask: Are you not choosing to choose because the status quo is better than the possible upside from the choice?

Everyone has blind spots. Ironically, the people with the most blind spots think they have none.

It's how we constantly reflect, evolve, and grow through our blind spots that defines and allows us to find success.

If you think your blind spots are holding back your business, we'd love to chat with you to see if we can quickly spotlight some of your blind spots and provide recommendations to address them.