A recent article in the WSJ demonstrates how common it is for executives to have blind spots that severely limit their career progression and success. It points out how difficult it can be to get reliable feedback on our performance, which reinforces these blind spots. Read it Here.
It's my experience that this does not apply to just to senior execs as discussed in the article. I encourage most of my business coaching clients to conduct informal 360's on a regular basis, regardless of their levels in their organizations. I suggest they ask a good mix of their stakeholders the following three questions:
1. What am I doing that I should keep doing?
2. What am I doing that I should stop doing?
3. What am I not doing that I should start doing?
I recommend that they use email to request a 10 minute face to face or phone meeting to discuss the answers to those three questions. I suggest they include the questions in that email to help their colleague think ahead for the conversation, but also request that they not reply via email.
By asking each of their stakeholders to give them one or two ideas for each question, leaders can keep the conversations brief and focused. They gain actionable insight from this exercise. And it also usually helps deepen their relationships with the people they ask for input.
If you have any questions on how to best use this technique or work with your blind spots, please leave me a question on our Ask Bob page.

