26.03.2025

WE CAN'T CHANGE WHAT WE DON'T KNOW

WE CAN'T CHANGE WHAT WE DON'T KNOW

twitter icon

Your team already knows your leadership blind spots. 😉 The only question is whether they'll tell you or their next employer.

Meeting leaders for debriefs of their self-assessment quiz has shown me one surprising fact: we're brilliantly blind to our blind spots. 🫤

It's not that I didn't know. I didn't realise that leaders are even more prone to that. The gap between their real and imaginable impact shapes entire organisations.

I'm not saying the best leaders are perfect. 😇 Their self-awareness is higher. Like the boss who knows they talk too much in meetings and actually sets a timer for themselves. Or the manager who understands they might easily get angry, so they practise pauses, time-outs and deep breathing.

The Secret to Motivation

The first step to powerful motivation is to stop demotivating them! ❌

People crave working in companies that grow and evolve, not those standing still. Demotivation extinguishes their natural desire to build something meaningful together.

Many leaders spend so much time reading books, attending courses and learning fancy motivation techniques while completely missing how their own behaviour pushes people away.

What we're not aware of controls us. 

Here are 9 examples of demotivation:

❌ Constant criticism
Striving for excellence is good, but without acknowledging effort, teams feel "Nothing I do is ever good enough."

❌ Boundary crossers
Being supportive is great until "I know better what you need" makes people feel their boundaries are trespassed.

❌ The goal-obsessed
When goals trump relationships, people are considered tools, they feel left on the sidelines.

❌ The emotional chaos
"Authentic" uncontrolled emotional expression drags teams into unwanted drama.

❌ The ice-cold mind
Reasonable but emotionally disconnected leadership leaves teams feeling abandoned.

❌ The anxious background
Hidden anxiety shows through inconsistency and tense vigilance, making teams wonder "Should we worry too?"

❌ The rose-tinted optimism
When positivity prevents addressing tough issues, teams become perplexed.

❌ The domination
When control and poor anger management take over, teams feel humiliated.

❌ Conflict avoidance
When peace is prioritised above healthy conflict, relationships become superficial or hide dangerous, rotting tensions.

We can't change what we don't know 🤷‍♀️

If you want to know, take this free quiz https://bit.ly/YourLeadershipStyleQuiz

  • Leadership & Management
  • Coaching & Mentoring
  • leadership
  • Leadership 360 Feedback
  • Leadership & Development

Leaders come to me when overwhelmed by advice, generic books, and training, but still lost on exactly how to improve. ⚓️

Follow us for more articles and posts direct from professionals on      
SME, HR Advice, Small And Medium Enterprises

Statutory Sick Pay is changing...

Statutory Sick Pay will change from April 2026. The headline points are fairly simple, but they've prompted a lot of…
Seo, Local SEO, Marketing, Content Creation

Why “Word of Mouth” Isn’t a Marketing Strategy (and What...

Most firms on here say the same thing when you ask where their work comes from: “We don’t really do marketing –…

From Lab to Financing: The Role of IP in Healthcare and...

Investment is key for the growth of biotech ventures, where it funds long, costly R&D, clinical trials, and regulatory…

More Articles

Business, Recruitment, Values Alignment

What is value led recruitment?

What people get wrong about choosing the right job When people are searching for the right job, they are often just…
Business, Employee, Challenges, Recruitment

Is Recruitment Broken?

This week, one theme kept coming up in my conversations: something isn’t working in recruitment. And when I say…
Coaching, Gratitude, Mindulness, Impact coaching

Remembering… those who have shaped us

🌺 Remembering This week, we’ve been encouraged to pause and remember those who gave their lives in service of our…

Would you like to promote an article ?

Post articles and opinions on Hampshire Professionals to attract new clients and referrals. Feature in newsletters.
Join for free today and upload your articles for new contacts to read and enquire further.