Leading a team can be like driving a car. Constantly checking you rear view and side view mirrors is necessary to make sure emergency vehicles and reckless drivers are within sight. However, these mirrors fail to give us a complete panoramic and accurate view of our immediate surroundings. Objects can look closer, farther, or different than what they really are. You must always make sure that you manually check your blind spot before accelerating into another lane.
The same safety measures are required to lead your team.
Assess Your Relationships
Checking the blind spot in your relationships is vital to make sure you surround yourself with the right people.People can come out of nowhere and get close to you, without you really reflecting on where they came from or what their intentions are. Similarly, a car in the highway lane next to you can sneak up behind you and into your blind spot. One minute you are driving, distracted by your podcast, and checking your GPS arrival time, when suddenly you abruptly stop yourself from changing a lane because a car—out of nowhere—is right next to you. You say to yourself, “Where did he come from?”
If you never checked your blind spot, the incorrect perception of your surroundings could have caused a disaster.
You Need to Know Your Team to Trust Them
It is extremely important to build a relationship with your team. What are their strengths and weaknesses? How are they interacting among fellow team members? Is there friction, unhealthy competition, or jealousy? Are there issues in their own personal life that you might need to be aware of? Do not ignore the signals that indicate a problem or rising concern.
Always practice honesty. Speaking truth can be difficult and uncomfortable, but it keeps things in the light. Great leaders know the danger of covering up an issue, error, mistake, or misunderstanding. Instead, they face it and deal with it.
Know When to Make a Change
When considering a move forward or taking a different direction for your organization, an unexpected situation might arise. Therefore, it’s important that your visibility increases to know when it is time to slow down or move ahead to avoid a negative outcome.You must make sure you are making the right move. You can not just assume that as you go, things will eventually fall into the right place, or obstacles will move out of your way on their own.
Ignoring a situation or the attitudes and behaviors of your team members can make things very difficult for the business, organization, or ministry. Be aware of those that say “yes” to everything and always ready to jump in to help you. Or on the contrary, always saying “no” to everything and never want to help.
Refusing to see reality is the first step to failure. The fact is, it can be hard to see things from a very close view, or the opposite—from too far away.
Let me be more specific here. Sometimes it is hard to know someone when they quickly get very close to us. Therefore, we must keep checking our blind spot. Equally, it is hard to really know someone who is not close to us at all. Keep checking your rear view mirror!
Familiarity can cause offense, as people become careless and therefore might express themselves in a rarely-seen manner. On the other hand, familiarity can cause you to completely miss the obvious character flaws of an individual because emotions blind us to the real personality others experience in that person.
Let Me Share a Real Story
Two people were going on a drive at night after a major storm passed through. While driving, they encountered a sign that said, “Road May Flood.” Disregarding the sign because the rain stopped hours before, they continued straight.Within seconds, they got scared because the water was flooding parts of the road from a nearby water source that had higher-than-normal levels due to the storm that had passed.
The yellow painted lanes vanished from sight, but they tried to keep going, until finally they realized the danger and risk was too great. They had no other option than to turn around—but how?
They stopped, checked all their blind spots, and slowly started to position their vehicle in the opposite direction. They finally got off that road and to their destination safely.
Never ignore the signals, even if they are not clear.
Always be aware of the blind spots. Ask others to check your blind spots by asking for their feedback without being defensive when you realize you missed something.
Always, keeping your eyes on the vision, make sure all safety measures are in place, so together with your team you can successfully accomplish the mission.
