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Overview
Many leaders believe they see the whole picture. The problem is, we all have blind spots. In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, John Jantsch talks with international leadership expert Cornelia Choe, co-author with Marshall Goldsmith of The Panoramic Leader: How Great Leaders See Differently. Choe pulls out what he calls blindness of vision.
Discussion includes how AI has made data cheap but judgment scarce, why more than half of workers who use AI never confirm what it’s offering them, and the reasons senior teams often disagree about how ready their companies are for change.
Choe introduces his GEM framework (Get close, Establish meaningful bonds, Map your evolving vision) to help leaders close these gaps before they cause damage. He also shares his personal story of moving from Minnesota to Seoul at the age of 10, and how that experience shaped his thinking about mind maps and blind spots.
This episode is for small business owners, agency leaders, and consultants who manage teams through constant change. If you’ve ever thought that your customers, employees, or leadership team see business the way you do, this interview will challenge that assumption and give you a framework to deal with it.
Guest Bio
Choe is an international leadership expert, global keynote speaker, and Thinkers50 Radar honoree. He is the founder of The Leaders Alliance and has advised leaders at organizations including the United Nations and the White House. He is the co-author, with Marshall Goldsmith, of Panoramic Leader: How Great Leaders See Differently. Choe grew up in eleven different places on three continents by the age of eighteen, an experience that informed his work on mind maps, cultural blind spots, and leadership theory.
Key Takeaways
- AI has made information more accessible, but it has not made judgment easier. More than half of the workers using AI are not sure what AI is giving them, and have made mistakes because of it.
- Visual blindness is the belief that you see the whole picture when you only see a piece of it. No single leader can keep track of all the changes happening in the company or the markets at the same time.
- Choe’s GEM framework offers three steps: get close to people who think differently, build trusting relationships with them over time, and map how your perspective on the situation changes as a result.
- Microtranslations are important. Two leaders can look at the same data and come away with completely different conclusions if they never explain their thinking to each other.
- An outside perspective is one of the quickest ways to spot a blind spot, because an outsider will question “this way we always do it” in ways that insiders rarely do.
Good times
- [00:02] – John opens with the question that drives the episode: what if the thing that slows down growth isn’t what you do, but what you can’t see.
- [01:41] – Choe explains how AI has sold data and why that impairs judgement, supported by research data on employee errors and unproven AI use.
- [03:53] – Choe explains the blindness of vision and explains why no leader can keep track of all the changes happening around them.
- [05:00] – John and Choe discuss why there is no permanent “new normal”, just a temporary series.
- [07:06] – Does vision blindness work in an eight-person business without a board? Choe says it’s especially important for small groups.
- [08:56] – Choe shares his personal story of moving from Minnesota to Seoul at the age of 10 and having to rebuild his entire mental map of who he was.
- [12:06] – Choe presents the GEM framework: get closer, establish meaningful bonds, map your evolving vision.
- [16:01] – A case study of a new CEO who almost quit after a conflict with a late founder, resolved through a facilitated interview with another former founder.
- [17:25] – Choe opens up about microtranslations and how the 39 percent vs. 7 percent readiness gap between CIOs and COOs is reflected within companies.
- [19:15] – John and Choe discuss why an outside perspective is one of the fastest ways to reveal a blind spot that no one in the company can see.
Memorable Quotes
- “The higher you go in the hierarchy, the less you hear about what people think and the more you hear about what people think you want to hear.” – Cornelia Choe
- “What we really need and what we are losing today is judgment.” – Cornelia Choe
- “Blindsight is a condition where we believe we see the whole picture.” – Cornelia Choe
- “Things are changing so fast that the disruptors are getting distracted.” – Cornelia Choe
- “When you get closer, you see the situation more clearly. And you can find many more solutions.” – Cornelia Choe
Resources
Cornelia Choe, Vision Blindness, Small Business Leadership, Thought Leadership