“What am I missing?” is the question that keeps smart leaders from getting blindsided.

Blind spots do not feel like gaps, they feel like a complete picture, which is why you cannot find them by thinking harder. The only way in is somebody else’s angle, and people will not volunteer it unless invited plainly. That question works because it assumes something is missing rather than asking whether anything is. It gives people permission to say what they were already thinking.

Ask it out loud this week, once, before you commit to something. Then stay quiet for longer than feels comfortable. The first answer is usually polite and the second one is usually the real one.