THE CORNERSTONE EAGLE

April 2018 Edition

Are you too critical? Impatient? Conflict-averse? Easily offended? You're not alone. Do you know

what are your leadership Blind Spots?

It’s a trick question because, by definition, Blind spots are areas where you lack awareness of your

weakness. Many coaches casually refer to them as “derailers.” A leader continues to advance and climb

the career ladder until an unknown weakness suddenly derails their career.

Self-awareness is a crucial key to happiness

and success. Without self-awareness, we

move through relationships and experiences

disconnected, unaware of how others receive

and perceive us, and unable to take full

responsibility for our outcomes. Conventional

wisdom would lead us to believe that leaders

with the most experience and the most

seniority would have the highest levels of self-awareness. Surprisingly, the opposite is true.

Let’s find out more together in this edition of The Eagle.

Cornerstone International Group’s MISSION is to be the best executive recruiting group worldwide, but

our VISION is to be a true mentor and coach, one-on-one, with our clients, candidates and partners locally.

The Cornerstone Eagle newsletter is not a sales letter to promote activities of our 60+ offices globally, but a

tool to inspire you to maximize your personal and professional potential to be a Better Leader and a Better

Person both at home and at business. We shall be your Faithful Companion / Coach / Mentor on your life

and career journey, supporting you to discover yourself and offering good advice for ‘Healthier Business

and Life’.

Best Wishes,

Simon Wan

Chief Executive

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Cornerstone International Group

Phone No.: +86 21 6474 7064 |Email: simon-wan@cornerstone-group.com

Blind Spots

As leaders ascend through the organization, self-awareness and emotional intelligence decline. Travis

Bradberry, author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, reported that "EQ scores climb with titles from the bottom

of the corporate ladder upward toward middle management. Middle managers stand out with the highest

EQ scores in the workplace because companies tend to promote people into these positions who are

levelheaded and good with people."

However, for positions beyond middle

management, the results are quite different.

"For the titles of director and above, scores

descend faster than a snowboarder on a black

diamond. CEOs, on average, have the lowest EQ

scores in the workplace," he shared.

What leads to this decline?

Blind Spots can be the Achilles heel of leadership. Weaknesses are aspects that we can intentionally

strengthen with practice, time, or desire. Blind Spots, however, are personal traits or aspects we don't even

know about that may limit the way we act, react, behave or believe, and therefore limit our effectiveness.

The Johari Window is a simple explanation of where our Blind Spots sit in relation to our self-awareness:

1) The Open quadrant is the information that you

know about yourself and that others also know.

2) The Blind Spot is the information that others

know about you, but you don’t know about yourself.

A funny example is the lady whose husband told her

she snores. She didn’t think she did, but he knew she

did. What are some things that people have said

about you that you didn’t know? There are also

positive things such as being a good listener or talker.

We may feel that we are not a good listener or talker,

but our friends may feel differently.

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3) The Hidden area contains all that information that we don’t want others to know about us. It’s that

closet of feelings, insecurities, and not-so-great experiences. It’s the private information.

4) The unknown area contains information that you and others don’t know. It could be abilities and

potentials that you have not discovered about yourself yet. An example could be that you might be a

great salesperson or customer service representative, but for now you don’t know whether you have

that ability or not.

The Top 10 Leadership Blind Spots

Extensive research points to dozens of leadership blind spots. There are, however, 10 core blind spots that

present most frequently. These are:

1. Going it alone (being afraid to ask for help).

2. Being insensitive of your behavior on others

(being unaware of how you show up).

3. Having an "I know" attitude (valuing being

right above everything else).

4. Avoiding the difficult conversations (conflict

avoidance).

5. Treating commitments casually (not honoring the other person's time, energy, resources).

6. Blaming others or circumstances (playing the victim; refusing responsibility).

7. Conspiring against others (driven by a personal

agenda).

8. Not taking a stand (lack of commitment to a

position).

9. Withholding emotional commitment

(emotional blackmail).

10. Tolerating "good enough" (low standards for

performance).

In addition to personal blind spots, blind spots also arise in teams, organizations, and in market

awareness/understanding.

Blind Spots about your team:

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1. Failing to focus on the vital few. (0ften focus on too many projects and details rather on the two or

three key initiatives that will lead to success).

2. Taking your team model for granted. (Leaders with this roadblock create team structure based on

their own desire, rather than the needs of their team members. Often putting themselves at the

hub of the team forcing everything to go through them, becoming a bottleneck on decision making).

3. Overrating the talent on your team. (May value loyalty and

be latching on to a team member's prior success, either of

which can blind the leader to someone's true ability to get the

current job done).

4. Avoiding the tough conversations. (Struggles with crucial

conversations send mixed messages to individual reports,

which lead to unresolved issues, and in turn can frustrate

other high-performing members).

5. Trusting the wrong individuals. (Creates an inner circle of

key advisers, risks closing off new ideas and seeing the reality

of current situations. Inner circle members become focused on preserving their access to power

and are unlikely to deliver honest assessments if it might upset their leader).

6. Not developing a successor. (Focused on short-term results and advancing their own career but

failing to consider the long-term needs of the organization and not spending enough time on the

developmental needs of their team members).

So how can you overcome your Blind Spots?

The best approach is to increase your time out of the office and broaden your number of contacts. By

spending more time with more customers, more employees, and more industry thought leaders, you are

more likely to see the “truth” of your situation and to take appropriate actions.

Blind spots aren’t necessarily negative traits or weaknesses, though they usually are. When you are

oblivious to something, there is a high likelihood that (1) you have never worked on it before, which leaves

an opportunity for improvement, and (2) it serves as an invisible boundary that limits what you can do.

Reading excerpts from Marissa Levin & Kevin Kruse

The Bible on Blind Spots when you Judge Others Matthew 7:1-5 Do not judge, or you too

will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it

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will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of

sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in

your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the

speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your

own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then

you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

HAPPY EASTER!

The Coming Easter weekend, we are celebrating the death of

Jesus as well as his being risen from the dead. It means that he’s

living and thus preparing a special place in Heaven for all of his

believers!

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The ones who believes in me will live, even though

they die.”

Our Editor, Nancy Chu at nancy-chu@cornerstone-group.com would love to hear from you if you have special

thoughts to share.

About Cornerstone International Group

Cornerstone International Group is a Global Talent Consultancy Group founded in 1989 with some 60 offices

worldwide and headquarters in Shanghai, China and Atlanta, USA. Our mission is to accelerate the success

of our clients by providing top-quality consulting services in the field of talent recruitment and coaching

solutions that are faster, better and at a value that serves our clients locally and globally. We provide a proven

approach to Executive Search, Coaching Solutions, Interim Management, Talent Mapping and Board

Solutions in China, Asia and across Europe and Americas. Cornerstone is a global member of AESC

(www.aesc.org) which accepts only the best of the best as members. Cornerstone is ranked by Forbes as one

of the Best Management Consulting Firms in Executive Search for 2016 and 2017.