Are you living in a leadership bubble?

A new decade lies ahead. Volatility is a key factor for a leader in 2020. Geopolitical, technological and in a world where consumers have enormous power as a result of digitalization and furthermore change preferences at 3-6 month intervals.

The difference between success and failure largely becomes a matter of how skilled a leader and organization is at early identifying crucial trends, competitors' initiatives, and error-correcting wrong decisions.

The ability to operate effectively and adapt in a changing world is severely impaired if leaders are isolated in an information bubble. That is, the situation where you, as a leader, by virtue of your position and power, are not exposed to information and questions that challenge your assumptions and help you discover new, important opportunities and threats.

"The challenge is the blind spots that can arise from the information that you neither ask for nor are aware of the existence of - and therefore not given"

Hal Gregersen from MIT's Center for Management has researched this problem. He has interviewed 200 top executives around the world. Virtually everyone can recognize the problem. All leaders are at risk.

The blind spots

A leader receives a high level of information. Namely, all the information he/she asks for as well as "the good news". The challenge is the blind spots that can arise from the information that you neither ask for nor are aware of the existence of - and therefore not given. The so-called "Unknowns Unknowns".

There are several reasons why a leader bubble occurs. When a manager is promoted from within, he/she suddenly, from one day to the next, may experience that former peers and colleagues look at one differently and become careful about sharing information. This is natural - "it's cold at the top".

Hal Gregersen points to another reason: the (impossible) expectations of oneself - as a leader - to always be a guarantor of the right answers and to give directions with a steady hand. It is quite human, that a leader often chooses to stay in the field where he/she has knowledge.

In addition, our behavior has a big impact on whether you end up in a bubble. Do we ask enough questions to the organization? Do we receive critical questions from our teams as well as employees, and are we responsive and open to critical questions? Do we occasionally get out of the comfort zone because we are challenged in our decisions? Do we spend enough time visiting and understanding our customers? Do we get around the organization? Do we openly acknowledge our faults to others.

“It starts with asking yourself the question: Am I living in a bubble? And if so, what are potentially my blind spots?"

Three recommendations

So what do you do in practice to stay out of the bubble? I have three recommendations. As a basic, you must constantly be aware of, and focus on, the risk of a bubble.

Point 1: It starts with asking yourself the question: Am I living in a bubble? And if so, what are potentially my "blind spots"? In most cases, the primary source of blind spots are that your executives and senior executives do not like to tell you “the bad news” or to challenge you. So be sure - as UPS CEO David Abney recently recommended in an interview in the Financial Times - to find those who have the courage to bring "the bad news" to you. Highlight them as role models because they enable the company to act in time on trends, etc.

Which brings me to point 2: Change around in your management team on an ongoing basis. It is a prerequisite for you as a leader to constantly challenge your view of the world as well as your decisions and it helps you to avoid complacency, which is dangerous. It will also help you to get as close to the truth about the business as possible. There is a tendency for you to be challenged less and less if your team is unchanged for a long time.

Point 3: Finally, LISTEN more and talk less. In other words, you have to ask questions, insist on sincere answers, listen to the organization and - very important - your customers. Without filters. It also means that you need to spend less time in the office and more time in the market, where you have to ask customers and business partners about their outlook on the industry and your business. And then you should engage with employees everywhere in the organization not just your direct references

Overall, it takes a lot of effort to stay out of the bubble, but the return is great if successful. As a leader, you are 100 percent depending on your team and employees sharing important signals and information continuously and without delay, so that you can make the right decisions in a timely manner.