Blind and Scared
There are many versions of the “Five things great leaders do”. I don’t want to write one of those. Instead, I would rather shine a quick light on two things people don’t talk about enough:
Be ruthless with your blind spots
Leadership is a constant work in progress and to push forward you have to hunt for the things you personally are bad at seeing. To do this, you need to open yourself up to criticism and surround yourself with folks who will challenge your thinking. Blind spots come in all shapes and sizes. For the purpose of this article I’m thinking about chronic blindness, the kind that can go on for years until it is often the only thing left standing in your way. For instance:
A CEO invests heavily in his enterprise SaaS product but can’t fathom why adoption remains a challenge. He talks about the product features being great so lack of adoption must be a function of something else. No one challenges this and the culture in the company forms in such way that the product becomes sacrosanct. Feature misalignments are never discussed openly. Understanding product market fit thoroughly is almost impossible.
A CEO is blind to the fact that her team displays little to no urgency when she is physically absent from the office. She works insanely hard and doesn't think her presence is essential; better to be out in front of the customers. In this case however, she inadvertently made it OK for others to be scarce or absent on her regular “out of office days”. People simply stopped coming in on those days. Working and “looking like you are working” became the same thing. The CEO failed to see the truth about her team - they need her, in the office, providing structure and accountability.
My personal blind spot always had to do with people. I was never great at understanding what motivates certain individuals and so, I made the mistake of assuming it’s the same as what motivates me. I was most blinded to people who would verbally express a fantastic grasp of their jobs and then, perplexingly couldn't execute or executed incredibly slowly. By letting this go on while continuing to support these people, I worry that I made underperformance (somehow) more acceptable in my company. My blind spot generated frustration amongst my very best people (who shared my in my performance vision) and likely wasted precious time in a number of areas over the years.
The ability to take criticism and to work your blind spots without being insecure about them is not easy. Companies have problems, some of these remain elusive for years and there is aways plenty of blame to go around. Exposing your self to this kind of thing sometimes means you become the magnet for everything, everyone feels is wrong. You can’t let it hurt your confidence in yourself or your grasp on reality. As for my blind spot on the disconnection between what people say they can do and what they actually do, it’s a work in progress. I am getting good at surrounding myself with people who help me see reality more perfectly and that helps.
Always contain the fear
The tech start-up business environment is tough and uncertain. Leaders can’t afford to succumb to it. You can’t afford to show fear; especially when everyone else is. Sometimes you can’t even show uncertainty or frustration - even when that is the most genuine thing you feel. If you are the leader, others will naturally calibrate their attitudes around you. It is never your turn to be scared or have a meltdown; it is simply too expensive.
Fear is contagious. It can spread through a company or a board room fast. And that always leads to bad decisions made for the wrong reasons. Keeping fear out of the dialogue, especially with your board, is your job. But it’s not a job anyone is going to congratulate you on. No one wants to admit they are scared or that they are reacting to things emotionally. Under these conditions, sometimes your calmness is mistaken for denial and you might lose the support of the room in those tense moments. Even if this happens, my advice remains the same: be the rock, take the criticism and stay hyper-focused on your plan. Folks will calibrate around you and start acting normal again very soon.
Trust is the foundation
The company leaders I respect the most can balance these two marvellously well. It takes a combination of bravery and patience and a lot of trust. Trust between you and your board of directors and you and your team. It takes trust to show vulnerability without losing confidence. It takes trust to project confidence without the fear of losing credibility.
