You will continue to make the same mistakes if you don’t identify and take care of your Business Blind Spots (BBSs). They are not easy to identify. I started calling it a business blind spot when I began noticing patterns (one of my core strengths) creating my client’s stagnation - patterns they couldn’t see themselves.
Many entrepreneurs can’t see it even if it’s right under their nose
Here’s the kicker: When I would tell them what I saw, they still could not see it. They would argue that it had to be something else.
WHY?
You see, they were using logic to try to understand the situation. Unfortunately, we humans are not logical beings. We are emotional beings and we often do things a certain way because we learned to do it that way in childhood. For example – how you eat, how competitive you are in sports or leisure games and how generous you are. The same applies to your business habits – they feel so COMFORTABLE now, that you will probably not notice that your old Pattern (your Business Blind Spot) is the thing that is getting in your way.
Wild, isn’t it? You can’t see what you can’t see
But I can see what you can’t see and I can help you.
Cathy and her partner led investment groups in real estate investments. She had great vision for utilization of spaces in the city and would often reap a large ROI over the long term. But in one big investment, she held on too long out of a false sense of obligation to her investors and lost a lot of money. She was devastated. She blamed herself for everything. She couldn’t see a way to avoid this again so she lost confidence inn herself.
I helped identify her BBS. It was accepting too much responsibility for events that happen. This was like a ball and chain weighing her down and impeding her vision. She tried too desperately to recoup some of the lost money for her investors. She had good intentions but this was a poor business decision.
I helped her clarify her true strengths – vision, foresight, creativity and her BBS. I cautioned that she’d have to play her strengths in the future and get a trusted advisor to warn her when she is overplaying her overactive sense of duty.
With this plan in place, she regained her confidence and began investing again.
Once you know your own BBS, the key is to accentuate your strengths and delegate your weaknesses = Business Blind Spots.
Live Your Dream at Work
Dr. Sam Gerstein
Business Strategy Coach, MD, Author
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