Podcast: Amy Edmondson and Leadership Blind Spots

As we at Barry-Wehmiller often say, the way we lead impacts the way people live.

But how often do we, as leaders, fully realize the impact our actions have on others? Do we have blind spots in our leadership that obscure behaviors hurting our people instead of helping them?

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School. She studies teaming, psychological safety, and organizational learning, and her articles have been published in numerous academic and management outlets. Her most recent book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth is an essential guide for leaders who are looking to harness the power of caring for their people.

Amy recently collaborated with Aaron Dimmock of our leadership consulting group, Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute, on an article for Harvard Business Review on leadership self-awareness and psychological safety in our workplaces.

As CCO has said, most breakdowns in workplace interactions are caused not by bad intentions but by a lack of leaders’ awareness of the impact of their behaviors on people in their organization – whether it’s a project team, a business unit, or a large corporation. Given these uncertain times where breakdowns are plentiful, leadership self-awareness is especially important.

Amy and Aaron, along with CCO Managing Partner Sara Hannah, recently had a profound discussion on this topic in a webinar. On this episode of the Everybody Matters Podcast, we’d like to share an edited version of their conversation.