Accepting That You Have Blind spots to Fix

There is always a fine line between confidence and arrogance. To succeed as a founder and CEO, a certain amount of confidence is required. However, with too much confidence, CEOs can become vulnerable to blind spots that can hinder their performance and hold their startup back.

For what it’s worth, we all have blind spots. In fact, it’s a good idea to just assume that you have them. If you’re a CEO who thinks that they are free of blind spots, there is a good chance you have a lot of them. The last thing any CEO wants is to be arrogant to the point of thinking you have no blind spots.

Of course, there is no reason to be ashamed of having blind spots; we all have them. If you were aware of them, they wouldn’t be blind spots. In a way, having blind spots can be a good thing. It gives you something new to discover about yourself that can make you a better founder and CEO.

The only question as a CEO is what are you missing? What are you doing wrong? More importantly, how do you discover your blind spots so that you can start to make improvements in your performance as a founder and CEO?

This is not going to be a journey of self-discovery. You need to find another party who can assess your weaknesses to help you discover your blind spots. Ideally, this should be a person who works closely with you but doesn’t report directly to you. Someone like this will be able to see things that you don’t.

Don’t think that blind spots are exclusively weaknesses. You might have strengths as a CEO that you didn’t know were there. Most people are aware of many of the things they’re good at, but not always everything. In your role as a founder and CEO, it’s possible you developed a skill or talent without realizing it.

If you can find multiple people who can help to point out your blind spots - good and bad - all the better. The best CEOs are the ones who will understand their weaknesses and former blind spots so that they can work on getting better in those areas. For a startup to succeed, the CEO must grow and develop just as much as the company.

In that sense, blind spots can be a good thing. They represent room for growth and improvement. They are also completely natural and expected. The trick for CEOs is making the assumption that they exist and trying to do something about them.