MBM Elevate is your organization and leadership resource
Our practical business orientation aligned with executive leadership development delivers meaningful results and sustained progress.
MBM Elevate is eager to share valuable market and leadership perspectives with you. If you have concepts or ideas you’d like to hear more about, please contact us to let us know. We’d love to explore relevant topics with you!
Is Your Blind Spot Limiting You?
So, you may not think it really matters if there is a blind spot in yourself or in one of your leaders if numbers are being met. But, blind spots can be like a governor on a rental truck. There is more power under the hood, but it is being held back.
Do blind spots really matter?
Do you have a leader that meets expectations but is not realizing the true potential of the team? Are you such a leader? As a leader, maybe you personally have received some consistent constructive feedback over the years that you filed as unimportant or incorrect because you continued to rise up in your career.
So you may not think it really matters if there is a blind spot in yourself or in one of your leaders if numbers are being met. But, blind spots can be like a governor on a rental truck. There is more power under the hood, but the governor is preventing access to it. The other cars are passing you and you get frustrated. You may even find yourself yelling at the truck and the rental company.
What is resulting from your blind spot?
What if you could remove that governor? What if you more than met your goals? What if the team was thriving? Hitting on all cylinders, over and over again? Beating out competitors? Attracting top talent?
Blind spots can yield:
o Missed opportunity today - If you so certain in your opinions and action oriented and get a lot done, your blind spot may prevent you from hearing other ideas or other client needs and an opportunity is overlooked.
o Unused potential or organizational capacity - If you are very empathetic, helpful and diplomatic – your blind spot may be that you don’t balance this with being clear on expectations and holding others accountable. This may be sub-optimizing your team.
o Ineffective behaviors – If your typical behavioral strengths aren’t yielding expected results and you are stressed, you may push on your strength harder or blow up or retreat. None of which may be productive or effective.
Identify & Disable your blind spots before they limit you.
Whether applied to a team or an individual, knowing what your blind spots are and the why behind those, opens up tremendous opportunity for accelerated growth and increased impact. Many times the individual is overusing their strength and not taking advantage of more effective behaviors for the situation.
Learning how to use behaviors in balance to optimize your effectiveness is liberating. Having a large toolkit of mastered skills and knowing which tool to use when, will result in the agility and adaptability needed in these volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) times.
The best organizations and leaders identify their blind spots before those become an issue or landmine. Before it hinders their agility to pivot and adapt.
If you want take the governor off that engine, let’s chat. MBM ELEVATE will explore objective assessments and coaching techniques that can unearth blind spots and develop increased leadership agility for you and your team.
Mary Beth Molloy
Certified Executive Coach and Business Consultant, she delivers uncanny focus on the intersection of your business vision and goals and the leaders you’ve entrusted to achieve them.
She knows what it takes to accelerate and elevate business results through leadership development and performance. It’s her powerful blend of these experiences together with her practicality, purpose, and positivity that drive our value.
Mary Beth is interested in hearing from you. | Follow on LinkedIn | Share comments or ask questions
Don’t Get Stuck Playing Defense Against VUCA
How to determine if leaders are equipped to play offense or stuck playing defense against VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity)
Offense Means Opportunity
We talk about VUCA a lot, with good reason. It stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, and right now, we are surrounded by intensity across all four. What does that mean for businesses? That depends on the state of readiness of their leaders, and if they are equipped to play offense or stuck playing defense.
When you’re stuck playing defense, you’re letting the circumstances drive your behavior. Your line of sight becomes very short, and you wind up “just getting by” (or worse) when times get tough. Businesses that have a strong offensive game are able to find opportunity in the challenges, better anticipate twists and turns, and keep their attention focused on the bigger, longer-term goals.
How to Know Which Ground Game You’re Playing
If you’re thriving through turbulent times, you must have some offense working somewhere. If you feel like all your energies are spent playing “whack-a-mole” with the issues of the day, chances are you’re stuck on defense. Either way, the secret to a well-rounded game plan is in the capabilities of the organizational leaders.
After years of working with executive teams to balance out great defense with great offense, we’ve identified a starter set of questions to explore to determine if you are playing offense in the interest of your organizational vision.
Questions to Explore
Are your leaders Amplifiers or Blockers?
Are they Agile – can they manage metrics today AND employ innovation to increase capacity AND create a vision to capture opportunities amidst VUCA?
Can they align AND inspire AND unleash disparate teams to collaborate across networks to achieve the purpose of the company?
Are they risk takers AND analyzers of pitfalls AND optimistic about the future?
The Winning Play
Here’s the catch. You can’t settle for answers to just one of these questions. To play successful offense in the game of VUCA, you need to answer, master, and execute against all of them at once. It’s a tall order, but moving your organization and team to playing offense is trainable, actionable, and puts you in a position of strength for growth.
We look forward to elevating your offense. Contact us to get the conversation started.
Mary Beth Molloy
Certified Executive Coach and Business Consultant, she delivers uncanny focus on the intersection of your business vision and goals and the leaders you’ve entrusted to achieve them.
She knows what it takes to accelerate and elevate business results through leadership development and performance. It’s her powerful blend of these experiences together with her practicality, purpose, and positivity that drive our value.
Mary Beth is interested in hearing from you. | Follow on LinkedIn | Share comments or ask questions