{"id":479,"date":"2017-12-01T01:35:15","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T01:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielvlopes238992071.wordpress.com\/2017\/12\/01\/our-biggest-blindspots-and-leadership-weaknesses-as-ceos\/"},"modified":"2024-10-11T10:38:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T17:38:16","slug":"our-biggest-blindspots-and-leadership-weaknesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2017\/12\/01\/our-biggest-blindspots-and-leadership-weaknesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Our 3 biggest blindspots and leadership weaknesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our research on the most common blindspots and signs of employee disengagement.<\/h4>\n
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\u201cWhat\u2019s the hardest part about being a leader?\u201d <\/strong>A few years ago, the Washington Post<\/a> interviewed Peter Thiel, cofounder and former CEO of PayPal, and asked him this question to distill his<\/em> greatest leadership weakness.<\/p>\n

This was his response:<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs CEO, you\u2019re somehow both the total insider and the total outsider at the same time. In some ways you\u2019re at the center of the organization. In other contexts, you\u2019re like the last person to know anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You\u2019re like the last person to know anything.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of all the things that make it tough to be a good leader\u200a\u2014\u200athe burden of decisions you have to make, the psychological toll of risk you bear, the interpersonal politics you juggle\u200a\u2014\u200aPeter felt that \u201cbeing the last to know\u201d was the hardest thing about being a leader.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not alone in feeling this way.<\/p>\n

I hear this sentiment all the time<\/em>. As the CEO of Canopy<\/a>, I talk with hundreds of managers, leaders, and business owners who tell me: \u201cI had no clue that a project was falling behind,\u201d or \u201cI was completely blindsided when our senior employee decided to put in her two weeks notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a manager, it can feel utterly maddening. You want to know about issues in your company before they bubble up into something bigger, and you try everything in your power to be \u201cin the know\u201d: employee surveys, suggestion boxes, one-on-ones, town hall meetings\u2026 You tell your employees that your door is always open, that you want to hear their honest feedback, that you can handle the truth\u2026and yet it doesn\u2019t seem enough. You\u2019re still<\/em> always the last person to know anything in your company.<\/p>\n

At Canopy, this is what we do best: we help managers clear the air in their companies, and not be the last to know. With our offering of both training<\/a> and tools<\/a>, we ask the right questions, in the right way, at the right time, to help managers get the insights they want. Our belief is you only get answers if you ask questions.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve done this since 2014, asking carefully crafted questions to 30,000+ people in more than 25 countries\u2026 and it\u2019s been fascinating to see the data come together.<\/p>\n

I decided to pull the most surprising insights from that data, and share them for the first time in written form here.<\/p>\n

Based on the questions we ask thousands of employees through Canopy, here are the three biggest blindspots and leadership weaknesses we overlook\u2026<\/p>\n

Blindspot #1: Your employees feel like they could be contributing more.<\/h3>\n

When asked through Canopy, 75% of employees said, \u201cYes, there\u2019s an area outside my current role where I feel I could be contributing\u201d <\/strong>(688 employees answered this across 107 companies). This is contrary to a common perception leaders have: that their employees are slammed and completely at capacity.<\/p>\n

Now, that perception may still very well be the truth. Your employees often do have a whole lot on their plates.<\/p>\n

But they still hunger to grow, learn, and further their own abilities in ways that we as leaders might not always be aware of. This might be a management role they\u2019ve always wanted to take on, or perhaps a new skill that they\u2019ve been wanting to develop.<\/p>\n

Employees have untapped potential that you could be helping to encourage\u2026 if only you knew about it.<\/p>\n

What can you do about this? Find a way to help your employees develop the skills they\u00a0want.<\/h4>\n

You want to nurture your employees\u2019 interests and abilities that help them grow professionally and personally. This can be as straightforward as asking your employees, \u201cWhat professional skill(s) have you always been wanting to develop?\u201d or \u201cIs there something you\u2019ve always wanted to learn professionally but haven\u2019t had a chance to yet?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another way to uncover this information is to consider that employees oftentimes love to learn from their peers. Ask your employees, \u201cIs there anyone at the company you wish you could apprentice under for a few weeks?\u201d <\/strong>This is one of the most popular questions we ask through Canopy. When asked across 145 companies to 1,756 employees, 92% of employees said \u201cYes, there\u2019s someone in the company I\u2019d like to apprentice under.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to go hire expensive consultants or create elaborate training programs to help your employees develop the skills they want. It can be as simple as utilizing the talents of the employees you already have.<\/p>\n

Blindspot #2: Your employees think your company is behind the\u00a0curve.<\/h3>\n

From the responses gathered through Canopy, we found that most employees believe their company is behind the curve in a certain area. In fact, when asked directly, \u201cDo you think our company is behind the curve in something in particular?\u201d 66% of employees said \u201cyes\u201d <\/strong>(1,072 employees responded to this across 147 companies).<\/p>\n

On top of that, employees frequently notice competitors pushing out ahead and doing things they wish their own company was doing. Seventy-six-percent of employees have said, \u201cYes, I\u2019ve seen something recently and thought to myself, I wish we\u2019d done that\u201d (1,119 employees answered this across 165 companies). Even further, 65% of employees said \u201cYes, I\u2019ve seen something a competitor has done recently that\u2019s really impressed me\u201d (564 employees answered this across 104 companies).<\/p>\n

Yet, how often do you have employees actively coming up to you, telling you about the latest neat thing a competitor\u2019s done that you should be aware of?<\/p>\n

My guess is\u2026 not that often. You\u2019re sitting on a wealth of helpful observations and good ideas with the potential to improve your business. And you\u2019re oblivious to them simply because, as leaders, we forget to ask.<\/p>\n

What can you do about it? Don\u2019t kill an idea too\u00a0quickly.<\/h4>\n

We all have a bias against creativity in time of uncertainty<\/a>. So when an employee brings up an idea or suggestion (especially if we\u2019re feeling overwhelmed or flustered at that moment), our knee-jerk reaction is to cast it aside. \u201cNot now,\u201d<\/em> we tell ourselves.<\/p>\n

To combat this natural bias, ask yourself: \u201cWhat are the ideas I\u2019ve been hearing right under my nose that I should be listening to?\u201d<\/strong> Force yourself to recognize that you might have a mental model or preconceived notion about what ideas are good and bad, which may be closing you off to ideas that are actually worthwhile.<\/p>\n

You can also try spending 15 minutes each week writing down questions that challenge the status quo. This technique, often used to promote innovation in a company<\/a>, will help you shake loose your predisposition to move things along in your company the way they\u2019ve always moved along.<\/p>\n

Lastly, you can simply ask your employees: \u201cIs there anything in particular you think we\u2019re behind the curve on?\u201d <\/strong>From this question through Canopy, we\u2019ve had companies make tangible improvements to business development, customer support, software security, and employee recruitment.<\/p>\n

Blindspot #3: Your employees want more feedback\u2026 but they don\u2019t want more performance reviews.<\/h3>\n

Perhaps this isn\u2019t a surprise to some. It\u2019s well documented<\/a> that employees today, more than ever, crave to understand what they could do better at their jobs. In our data collected through Canopy, we found the same: 80% of employees want more feedback about their performance <\/strong>(1,468 employees were asked about this across 138 companies).<\/p>\n

However, employees don\u2019t see performance reviews as the best way to get this feedback. Sixty-three percent of employees feel that, \u201cYes, we do performance reviews frequently enough\u201d <\/strong>(650 employees responded to a question about this across 73 different companies).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret people don\u2019t like<\/a> performance reviews. Have you ever sat in one? They\u2019re awful. We hate giving them. We hate being on the receiving end. Why? They\u2019re a long, stressful, giant dump of information from the past year, often arbitrary with ratings and scores.<\/p>\n

What employees want instead is regular, helpful feedback. The more regular this feedback and interaction is with managers, the more engaged employees are. A recent 2015 Gallup study<\/a> show that managers who hold regular meetings with them are almost three times as likely to be engaged as employees whose managers do not hold regular meetings with them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s more than evaluating employees at the end of the year just to \u201ccheck a box.\u201d It\u2019s open, frequent conversations that are centered around mentoring and coaching employees.<\/p>\n

What can you do about this? Communicate consistently.<\/h4>\n

Consistent communication from a manager\u200a\u2014\u200abe it via in person, over the phone, electronically\u200a\u2014\u200ais proven by <\/strong>Gallup<\/strong><\/a> to be connected to higher engagement. <\/strong>This could be one-on-ones, all company meetings, social opportunities, all-company get togethers.<\/p>\n

In particular, Gallup found that managers who are most successful at engaging their employees use a combination of face-to-face, phone and electronic communication. And, the most engaged employees report that their managers returned calls or messages within 24 hours.<\/p>\n

The key here is consistency. If you want your company culture to be open and transparent, you\u2019ve got to practice open and transparent communication regularly. The more often you do it, the more natural it will feel. Practice makes habit. And those habits will evolve into your culture. This is how you create a culture of openness.<\/p>\n

I understand how difficult this is to do. But your employees want to know you\u2019re listening and are responsive\u200a\u2014\u200aand your consistent communication shows this.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a one-off, \u201cdo it once and I\u2019m done\u201d sort of thing you do. It\u2019s not transactional. It\u2019s genuinely caring about the relationships you\u2019re building with your employees, and showing that you care.<\/p>\n

This means getting to know your employees outside of work as well. Gallup<\/strong><\/a> reported that employees who feel as though their manager is invested in them as people are more likely to be engaged.<\/strong> So creating opportunities for people to engage socially, share a bit of their lives outside of work, is a way to increase your employees\u2019 engagement.<\/p>\n

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In sum, as a CEO, founder, or manager, you\u2019ll want to keep these blindspots and leadership weaknesses in mind\u2026<\/p>\n

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  1. Employees feel like they could be contributing more.<\/li>\n
  2. Employees think your company is behind the curve.<\/li>\n
  3. Employees want more feedback\u2026 but they don\u2019t want more performance reviews.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Now granted, these are insights we found across the thousands of managers who use Canopy. For your<\/em> company, your blindspots and leadership weaknesses could be different. Depending on how big your company is, what interpersonal dynamics you have, how well you communicate across the company, etc.\u2026 what you don\u2019t know varies from company to company. And it changes over time, as you grow and hire new folks and other folks leave, as the market changes, and as your business offering evolves.<\/p>\n

    But by understanding what\u2019s most commonly overlooked, and seeing what\u2019s been surprising to our managers who use Canopy, you can avoid the blindspots that others have failed to see.<\/p>\n

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