The Gap

The idea of “the gap” in business is not a new thing. There are at least a half a dozen books written by different authors titled, “The Leadership Gap,” which all focus on identifying and closing the gaps in our leadership style which create a negative outcome.  Plenty of consulting firms focus on helping businesses analyze the gap between their current business performance and their desired outcomes.  Marketing strategists almost always start with assessing the “market gap” which can identify an opportunity to offer something that customers want but that businesses aren’t currently providing.

So how could this notion of “the gap” be helpful to us as professionals?

Lately, I’ve had several coaching conversations with leadership teams about turning their “gap radar” on, mainly because in our discussions about what is troubling them as leaders, I notice consistently that they are not mindful of noticing “the gap” of opportunity that’s hidden within their spots of trouble.

Here’s an example:  James is an office manager of an oral surgery practice within a small OS group of 8 locations. He has recently been onboarding two new surgical assistants and expressed frustration that they don’t seem to be grasping the information he’s providing. He reports being highly frustrated with them.

James and I strategized about how he might help them integrate the information more effectively, but then I asked him what gaps he saw in his onboarding process that this trouble might have revealed. Mired in the depth of his frustration with the new hires, he hadn’t even thought about that.

Another recent example was Trish who is an administrative team lead for another surgical practice and expressed some frustration with patients who show up for surgeries, having not followed the post-operative instructions of “no food or drink” before their appointment (and the subsequent fallout with the surgeons when they consequently have no patients or production). We discussed how to effectively communicate with these patients in the moment, but, again, afterwards I asked what opportunity gap did this frustration reveal? They hadn’t even thought about or discussed it. We identified 5 ways they could shore up their post-operative written and oral instructions, including patient signatures on electronic forms to reduce the number of times this happened in the future.

It’s just so easy to look outward when we’re frustrated and miss the opportunity to identify gaps in procedures, systems, communication, and even our own professional growth. This week, look for the gaps when you feel frustrated, worried, or unsure. These often represent huge opportunities for improving outcomes and growing your own professional skills. Great leaders are always asking the better questions of how did we get here, what’s my role in this, or what can we learn and improve from this kind of situational feedback?

Great leaders almost always look inward before they point outward.

“The unprepared mind cannot see the outstretched hand of opportunity.”

~ Sir Alexander Fleming