'Coach Kriengsak, it's almost the year end and I'm thinking about the improvements I want to make next year. I want to know about my blind spots," Yuthana tells me. "But it's not easy for a person to see his blind spots by himself. What should I do?"
"Khun Yuthana, there are several options. One is 360-degree feedback from the people who work with, above and below you. Alternatively, you can directly ask your boss, peers, subordinates or a mentor, or you can simply ask yourself. In fact, the more the better."
"Coach, my organisation isn't very good at giving honest feedback, frankly. I want to ask myself, but how do I do that?"
"Okay, Khun Yuthana, I'll help you by asking some questions to stimulate your thinking. Would that be okay with you?"
He nods.
"Okay. Let's start from your boss's perspective first. If you were to put yourself in his shoes, knowing his style, what do you think would be your blind spot from his perspective?"
"I'm not sure. Any hints?"
"How is the relationship between you and your boss?"
"Quite good. We have regular lunch meetings once a month. My boss is a friendly person. But if there are negative things he perceives about me, he doesn't tell me much."
"Has he ever made some kind of joke or sarcastic remark about you?"
He thinks for a while and says: "It's very rare, but one time he teased me during lunch. There was a minor incident when the waiter switched our main courses. I complained to the waiter on the spot. Afterward my boss said: 'Yuthana, be calm, don't be such a perfectionist. It's only lunch. You know being a perfectionist won't make everyone happy.' So I think he perceives me as a perfectionist."
"That's good. Anything else from your boss?"
"No."
"What about your peers?"
"My business unit is isolated both physically and because of the nature of our business. My peers wouldn't be able to observe my blind spots."
"What about your subordinates? If you were in their shoes, what blind spots would they would see?"
"Based on my interaction with them during management committee meetings, they get uncomfortable when I ask too many 'Why' questions. After one tense meeting, my secretary told me that several subordinates had given me the nickname 'Mister Y'. I guess they see me as a micro-manager."
"Okay. Right now you have two potential blind spots. Which one do you want to work on first?"
"I want to work on micro-managing first. I think it's a high-impact blind spot for me."
"What makes you say that?"
"Because the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me now. During the management committee meetings, I do have a tendency to ask too many 'Why' questions. Most of the time, my team members aren't able to answer me on the spot. Consequently, after the meeting, they have to go back and ask their people. Then, they have to submit reports to explain or clarify my questions. Hence, my executives who are supposed to manage and lead end up being chiefs of data gathering instead. My whole organisation works very hard in order to answer my micro-management questions."
"What will you do?'
"I need to be less of a micro-manager. But I'm not sure how."
"Khun Yuthana, why did you ask so many 'Why' questions?"
"I was trained that way. It started when I was a supervisor on a car production line early in my career. I was trained to seek out as much detail as possible. Whenever a problem occurred on the line, I was told, if I asked five 'Why' questions I would find the true cause. I did that until it became a type of autopilot behaviour for me.
"But now I have to accept that I'm not a supervisor on a production line anymore. I lead a group of C-Level knowledge workers in a knowledge-based organisation. What got me here won't get me anywhere. In fact, it's taking me backward because of the burden I've created for my people."
"Khun Yuthana, how will you prevent yourself from turning on this autopilot?"
"Asking 'Why' has become second nature. I need to create a new habit as an alternative."
"What will the new habit be?"
"The new habit will be listening instead of asking 'Why'. I have to tell myself:
Why do I really need to know more about this subject? Is it necessary?
What choice do I need my team to make: gather this data or spend time on other value-creating activities?"
"How will you ensure that this will be your new habit?"
"Coach, I will remind myself every morning when I finish my meditation. I'll also remind myself every time I go into the management committee meeting room."
"That's good. Let's follow up in our next coaching session."
Kriengsak Niratpattanasai provides executive coaching in leadership and diversity management under the brand TheCoach. He can be reached at coachkriengsak@yahoo.com. Daily inspirational quotations can be found on his Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/TheCoachinth. Previous articles are archived at http://thecoach.in.th