Best of Blogs: Leadership Is a Verb by John Bishop

This is the third of a series of guest posts from the ten bloggers nominated for Best Leadership Blog of 2009 (place your vote here)

John Bishop is a person who never fails to bring forth discussions and insights that are not only thought-provoking, but informational and inspirational also. An evidence to this is his tight knit following he has developed throughout the years; which he refers to as his Leadership Is a Verb Community. John continues to deliver pieces on not just leadership, but also mentoring, diversity and career development. Below is an exceptional blog post from John on how to make sure your priorities are getting done and other important things aren’t getting overlooked:

Understanding the Blind Spots – Leader’s Weaknesses and Mentoring Others
by John Bishop (March 26, 2009)

As a long time motorcyclist, I know the importance of constant situational awareness. This includes my mental state, the mechanical performance of the cycle, security of cargo and attentiveness of my favorite passenger. This does not even account for the countless traffic and road conditions around me.

We typically consider “blind spots” to be those areas to our sides and back that we cannot see very well during driving using mirrors. The rider must do something extra ordinary to maintain safety. I have found that blind spots exist in our leadership and job performance skills in the same way. In working with many people over the years I’ve found that providing them with a tool to help them identify their work “blind spots” has been quite helpful.

The “Important-Urgent” grid above has helped many of my mentees over the years understand how to deal with priorities, eliminate fire drills, balance the time-quality trade-off and remove unneeded tasks. Here are my typical findings:

• Urgent/Important – You get fired if these don’t get done!

• Urgent/Not Important – These get too much effort for the value and often could have been anticipated.

• Not Urgent/Important – The most common blind spot. Unfortunately too many leaders put performance reviews, communication and mentoring in this group.

• Not Urgent/Not Important – To who? Make sure you and your boss agree on the category, limit the task, extend the due date or get these officially canceled.

Do you use this or a similar model for finding your blind spots or when helping others?

Models are powerful things and John’s example proves it. Consider using this model in your coaching and mentoring opportunities. This model can be especially helpful in supervisor development as well.

Make it one of your near term leadership activities to think about the models you use – consciously or unconsciously – use them more effectively in the days and weeks ahead.

In the meantime, vote for John or any of the other finalists here.

Best of Blogs: Leadership Is a Verb by John Bishop

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