Monday Motivation: Your Blind Spots Are Your Strengths—If You Own Them

on March 17, 2025

You’re not great at everything. No one is. And the worst leaders are the ones who pretend they are.

Here’s the reality: your blind spots aren’t weaknesses. They’re just gaps. And gaps can be filled—as long as you acknowledge them and hire accordingly. The real risk isn’t having blind spots; it’s ignoring them, downplaying them, or worse, letting your ego convince you they don’t exist.

Too many leaders waste time trying to “fix” what they’re not naturally good at instead of doubling down on what they are good at and surrounding themselves with the right people. The best CEOs aren’t great at everything—they’re just smart enough to hire people who are. You don’t need to be a financial genius if you’ve got a sharp CFO. You don’t have to be a top-notch salesperson if your VP of Sales is a closer. The job of a leader isn’t to be the best at every function—it’s to build a team that, together, is.

This is exactly why I approach every leadership opportunity with a specific playbook:

1. Assess the Landscape – Talk to customers, vendors, and competitors. Understand where the business stands in the market. Get a real baseline, not just what the internal reports say.

2. Pressure-Test Assumptions – Meet the team, listen, and try to disprove everything I just learned. The external view is important, but the people inside the business see things differently. The truth is usually somewhere in between.

3. Map the Future Team – Make a future org chart. Not based on where we are, but where we need to be. What skills do we have today? What skills will we need when we hit our definition of success? And who on the current team can grow with the business?

4. Move Fast on Talent – Once I know what’s missing, I work like hell to find the right people quickly. The sooner we get the right people on the bus, the faster we get where we’re going.

5. Give Them a Vision, Align the Team, Then Get Out of the Way – The best leaders don’t micromanage. They set a clear destination, make sure everyone is rowing in the same direction, and let their people do what they were hired to do.

Marcus Aurelius put it this way: “Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.”

In other words, just because you struggle with something doesn’t mean the right person won’t thrive in that exact role.

Great leaders don’t waste time forcing square pegs into round holes—including themselves. They understand where they excel, where they don’t, and they hire people who can do the things they can’t. That’s not a weakness. That’s strength.

It’s Up to You.

Abhi Singh