You’re Inside the Bottle, You Can’t See the Label

Good Advice for Leaders

Leading a team, a company, or even just a project? Here’s the harsh truth: you’re too close to the problem to see it clearly.

It’s not a personal failing—it’s just how humans work. When you’re deep inside something, whether it’s your company culture, your strategy, or your messaging, you miss what’s obvious to everyone else. That’s why leaders who think they have all the answers are usually the ones making the biggest mistakes.

So what can you do about it?

1. Get Outside Perspective

You don’t need more internal meetings where everyone nods along. You need fresh eyes—customers, advisors, frontline employees, or even a competitor’s point of view.

• Talk to your customers. Their experience is reality. Yours is just a guess.

• Ask your team hard questions. The stuff they don’t say in meetings is usually the most important.

• Bring in outside voices. Consultants, mentors, even brutally honest friends—anyone who isn’t stuck in your bubble.

2. Kill Your Darlings

The best leaders aren’t the ones with the best ideas. They’re the ones willing to kill bad ones, even when those ideas were theirs.

• That marketing campaign that flopped? Drop it.

• That process that slows everything down? Fix it.

• That exec who isn’t pulling their weight? Move on.

Your job isn’t to be right—it’s to get it right.

3. Step Back (Then Step In)

You can’t see the big picture if you’re always in the weeds. Step back, get clarity, then dive back in with intent.

• Zoom out: Where are things actually broken?

• Zoom in: What’s the one high-impact change you can make?

• Act: Stop overthinking and start fixing.

Final Thought: Good Leaders Stay Humble

If you assume you see everything clearly, you’re already failing. The best leaders know their blind spots, seek outside input, and make decisions based on reality—not ego.

Step outside the bottle. Read the label. Then lead accordingly.