You Can’t Be Blindsided If You Don’t Have a Blind Side

The four-eyed fish can see above and below water at the same time. Mother nature gave this perceptive creature bifocal lenses. The bottom half of each eye sees clearly underwater, the top sees clearly above. Not a bad adaptation. And then there’s the dragonfly. Its eyes wrap around most of its head, so that it can see virtually everywhere.

And we think we’re so clever! Our eyes have relatively limited peripheral vision compared to many of our mammal cousins. Our competitive advantages, outside of our unique prehensile thumb, are principally cerebral. We think our way to survival. We can’t see behind our heads or above and below water at the same time, but we can think and plan ahead, hold meetings, work together, and share our knowledge, talent, creativity, and points of view

With all these advantages, you’d think we’d be invincible, never miss a trick, never get caught unprepared. You’d think organizations staffed with brilliant people would see and grasp to every opportunity and avoid every threat. Not on your life. Here’s why:

Simply having lots of very perceptive people with a full spectrum of viewpoints will not ensure peripheral vision. You have to deliberately and consistently align the goals and coach the performance and aspirations of everyone to achieve an alert and responsive 360-degree view. However, with such an intimately aligned organization, you just might see your competitive field in 4D, above and below the surface. The uniqueness of our CoachQuest Leader-as-Coach Workshop lies in the power of 4-way coaching. Coaching that draws upon yourself, your manager, your team, and your colleagues.

To learn how to align your organization around a coaching leadership framework, see CQ Development Cycle.

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