Four Types of Leadership Blindsets*

The Fantasy Blindset. Sometimes leaders have a fantasy blindset — they are overly optimistic and see what they want to see. A leader living in a fantasy world may think he has great relationships with everyone on this team, when in reality the team can’t stand him and never tells him the truth. Every entrepreneur needs to be a little overoptimistic to do something as irrational as start a business, given that 90 per cent of new businesses fail, but fantasy can be ruinous when we fundamentally ignore reality.

The Paranoid Blindset. Other leaders have a paranoid blindset — they are pessimistic and fearful and see threats where none exist. A leader living with paranoia does not trust data or reports from her teams. She is worried that the competition is always gaining on them, or she thinks her board is always on the verge of firing her. A little bit of paranoia is good; it makes us cautious. But too much paranoia can be paralyzing.

The Denial Blindset. When leaders fail to see or accept some painful truth, they have a denial blindset. Leaders living in denial cannot see the writing on the wall that the world is passing them by, that they need to innovate. Denial in management can keep a leader from seeing that she has lost the confidence of her team, or that she or her team are not up to the challenge of scaling the company.

The Skeptical Blindest. Finally, some leaders have a skeptical blindset — they are pessimistic and don’t see how good things really are. A leader who is too skeptical often micromanages. He tries to control how people do their work and does not get curious about what he might be able to learn from his team.

*A blindset is a combination of a mindset and a blindspot