A leader’s greatest blind spot may be relying on an over-developed strength when they enter a new role. That’s natural as it’s likely that that strength resulted in their selection. For example, I once worked with Jill (not her real name), at a leading financial services organization. She had a commanding knowledge of employee relations law and was well-respected by her colleagues for her ability to manage multiple grievance investigations and external service providers.
The number of complaints was rising so she created a recommendation to retain more attorneys to reduce the attorney to second stage grievance ratio. It was her natural inclination to view the problem to be solved as to handle an increasingly large number of complaints more efficiently rather than question or propose how the root causes of grievances could be reduced or eliminated. She certainly had the knowledge to make that proposal but relied on his expertise in grievance management rather than grievance prevention.
To use an extreme metaphor, if your only tool is a hammer every problem looks like a nail. Where are you or your team using the hammer of expertise rather than diagnosing the root causes of a situation or problem?
employee relations is very very important in the business setting.*”‘