Other people can often see valuable things that you can’t

Imagine you had the opportunity to sit down and talk for an hour with an executive leader at your company. Suppose you could ask him some questions, what would you ask them?

I got to do that yesterday with our global head of technology. The timing was great because it’s been a challenging year and a particularly tough couple of weeks. I got so much out of our conversation.

So what did I ask him?

I asked what he can see from his perspective about my region and teams that I’m not seeing. What am I missing? Was there anything he thought we should do more of? Or try to do less of?

Why was it so important for me to ask him what my blind spots are? Because additional perspective creates invaluable insight and understanding.

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” - Richard Feynman

We shouldn’t assume our own perspective is always complete or always correct. As leaders we should strive to be more like kings and queens and less like fools.