Coaching practices for I Look Around at the People I've Hired and They All Think Exactly Like Me Same Blind Spots Same Gaps and I'm Realizing the Team Has No One Who's Strong Where I'm Weak So the Whole Thing Leans Hard in One Direction
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For I Look Around at the People I've Hired and They All Think Exactly Like Me Same Blind Spots Same Gaps and I'm Realizing the Team Has No One Who's Strong Where I'm Weak So the Whole Thing Leans Hard in One Direction, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I look around at the people I’ve hired and they all think exactly like me
- I’ve basically written my team off as weak
- I’ve quietly filed each person on my team as strong or weak, and then I’m baffled when my "strong" one flounders on something new
- I pour most of my effort into shoring up the things I’m bad at and it crawls
- I can spot everyone else’s blind spots instantly
Practices that may help
- Build a team whose combined strengths cover all four domains
Hire and assemble deliberately for domain coverage, not for people who think like you.
Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical - There are no bad teams, only bad leaders
The same people perform differently under different leadership — so start with the leadership.
Extreme Ownership, Made Practical - Assess readiness task by task, not person by person
Rate competence and commitment for the specific task in front of them, not the person overall.
Situational Leadership, Made Practical - Invest more development effort in your strengths than in your weaknesses
Move from average to excellent in your strength areas rather than from poor to average in your weak ones.
Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical - Question your own objectivity explicitly
Ask yourself what forces might be shaping your perception before assuming you see things clearly.
Naive Realism: Why Everyone Thinks They See Things as They Are - Use the Johari Window in team settings
Apply the window at the team level to improve shared understanding and reduce inter-member blind spots.
The Johari Window - Manage LMX differentiation fairly as a leader
Acknowledge that you develop different relationships with different people — and ensure the differences are earned, not arbitrary.
Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), Made Practical - Map your team’s genius coverage
Check whether all six activities are covered by someone who finds them energizing.
The 6 Types of Working Genius (Patrick Lencioni) - Break the advice-dependency loop
When people come to you for every decision, it signals advice-giving is making them less capable, not more.
The Leader as Coach: A New Management Paradigm - Get the right people on the bus before setting direction
Prioritize who is doing the work before deciding what to do.
Level 5 Leadership: Humility and Will in Great Leaders
Related concerns
- When Extreme Ownership No Bad Teams
The same people perform differently under different leadership — so start with the leadership.
There are no bad teams, only bad leaders
- How To Build A Balanced Team
Hire and assemble deliberately for domain coverage, not for people who think like you.
Build a team whose combined strengths cover all four domains
- Team Strengths Gaps
Hire and assemble deliberately for domain coverage, not for people who think like you.
- When Situational Leadership Assess Task Readiness
Rate competence and commitment for the specific task in front of them, not the person overall.
Assess readiness task by task, not person by person
- Strengths Based Leadership On A Budget
Strengths-based leadership, developed by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie building on Gallup’s decades of manager research, holds that the most effective leaders invest in their own strengths and build teams whose combined strengths cover all four leadership domains — executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking. Gallup’s correlational research consistently finds that strength-focused teams report higher engagement and performance, though the causal direction is not fully established.
- Strengths Based Leadership With My Team
Strengths-based leadership, developed by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie building on Gallup’s decades of manager research, holds that the most effective leaders invest in their own strengths and build teams whose combined strengths cover all four leadership domains — executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking. Gallup’s correlational research consistently finds that strength-focused teams report higher engagement and performance, though the causal direction is not fully established.
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