Jason was focusing on developing his team. He saw his role as one where he helps the members of his team to become leaders and develop their competency.

He assumed that in doing so he was doing the necessary for his business to develop itself. His mantra was that learning is the royal path to having great employees and consequently a well-functioning business.

He regularly would also point out how his team has a level of excellence and perfection he was proud of. What he wasn’t looking at, was the effort his team had to bring to continue to be successful as an organization.

One of Jason’s major challenges was to find a way to articulate business benefits.

Being focused, as he was, on the things he does well he avoided investigating other options. For example, how his team was actually performing, the existing cooperation within his team, and some basic business necessities allowing him to see upcoming risks.

In essence, he was complacent. Not intentionally. This is natural, as complacency also is a description of the blind spots someone has.

The risk here is, that the day a real business urgency comes up, Jason will end up in a panic and introduce change to bring about change. That is without establishing a clear objective.

´To be able to develop a sound sense of urgency, it is necessary to learn to distinguish it from one’s fears and panic. Panic is the result of a felt sense of urgency that appears together with helplessness.

Helplessness on the other hand is the fear that Jason was trying to avoid. His perception of leadership prevented him from accepting the possibility to be helpless one day. All his learning is focused on preventing that day to come. And many of his activities are there to remind him of his ability to act and achieve results.

It is by looking into his fears that Jason found a way to investigate the risks his company is encountering. Once in a while, resistance continues to appear. That is, whenever the risk involves a situation in which his fears will be triggered.