By Mark Norige, Advisory Board Member, Mansfield Bio-Incubator

Entrepreneurs. Have you ever; been blindsided by something that you should have known but didn’t? Was unprepared because you misread the situation? Turned down help from a colleague because you didn’t want to appear inexperienced? If you answered no to these questions then consider yourself lucky and read no further. If you answered yes, then you are like most people and please continue reading. This brief describes two common reasons, overconfidence and blind spots, that cause many unwelcomed surprises. As an added bonus, included are tips on how to keep confidence in check and minimize your blind spots.

Overconfidence. The “mother of all biases”.

In 1999, two Cornell social psychologists, David Dunning and Justin Kruger, published a study titled "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments"(1). Later nicknamed as the Dunning-Kruger effect, they described a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimated their own ability (also known as illusory superiority), and that people with high ability at a task underestimated their own ability. They found across multiple groups studied, people who possessed little subject knowledge lacked the ability to properly assess their own competence and thus thought they were much better than they actually were. Are you aware of your subject knowledge limitations or are you overly confident with only basic information? Asking others to check your plans for hidden biases before you act can go a long way to avoiding unwelcome surprises.

Blind spots. Everyone has them.

Back in 1955, psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham, first proposed the technique to better understand human interaction known as the Johari window, nicknamed after its creators Joe and Harry.

The Johari window is comprised of four quadrants based on what we know and don’t know about ourselves and what others know and don’t know about us.

The Johari Window

Quadrants

The area of free activity, refers to the behavior and motivation known to self and known to others.
The blind area, where others can see things in ourselves of which we are unaware.
The avoided or hidden area, represents things we know but do not reveal to others (e.g. a hidden agenda or matters about which we have sensitive feelings).
Area of unknown activity. Neither the individual nor others are aware or certain behaviors or motives. Yet we can assume their existence because eventually some of these things become known, and it is then realized that these unknown behaviors and motives were influencing relationships all along. The idea of the Johari window is that when we acknowledge our BLIND areas and ask for help, we can decrease BLIND areas and increase OPEN areas creating more commonality and truth with others. Being open to others feedback is valuable in reducing blind spots by making your knowable unknowns known.
Tips
Further ideas to mitigate surprises due to an overconfidence bias or to avoid your blind spots is to build a circle of trusted advisors, coaches and mentors around you. Leveraging others experience and perspectives will go a long way to reducing your unwelcomed surprises.
References:
(1) Kruger, Justin; Dunning, David (1999). "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 77 (6): 1121–1134.
(2) Luft, J.; Ingham, H. (1955). "The Johari window, a graphic model of interpersonal awareness". Proceedings of the Western Training Laboratory in Group Development. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles.
Written by Mark Norige – Principal, Consultant and Chief Catalyst of The Board Forum®. Mark is a present and former CEO, business leader and lecturer. He writes and consults on leadership and business improvement topics. © November 2021 www.theboardforum.com Guided by professional facilitators, The Board Forum-CEO Roundtable is a peer advisory that brings together CEOs, presidents, company owners and other C-level executives, to solve problems, enhance thinking and perspective and to discover new opportunities. The Board Forum – Genesis is geared towards the needs of early-stage businesses and membership is free for qualified applicants.