Anne Lackey is the cofounder of HireSmart Virtual Employees, a full-service HR firm helping others recruit, hire & train top global talent.
As an entrepreneur, you have the seed of an idea, which immediately explodes with complexity once you add water and try to make it grow. Your days are slammed with constant decisions. The mental game is never-ending, but your grit pulls you through, and eventually, you develop expertise as a business owner.
But there’s a hidden danger. Your expertise can slowly wall you off from how others experience your business. Think of the tunnel vision of the Olympian, the ballet dancer or the concert pianist as they pursue a goal. There’s an opportunity cost to relentless focus. Obsessiveness can bring success, but it often comes at the expense of a broader perspective.
Business owners face the same challenge because running a company requires obsessive focus on your narrow world. But customers and new employees inhabit a different reality. What feels intuitive to you might bewilder them. That “simple” online form could be driving away sales. That “efficient” phone system might be frustrating customers into seeking alternatives. That “clear” employee handbook might leave new hires more confused than confident.
That’s why it’s imperative to keep a “fresh eyes” mindset on every process and interaction. Always ask yourself, “What if I didn’t know what I know?” If you don’t constantly ask this question, then you’re accepting a big blind spot in your relational approach to clients, customers and employees who aren’t privy to all your knowledge.
Let’s look at ways you can avoid “silo brain” and keep fresh eyes on your business.
Recognize Onboarding As An Important Window To Your Business
The first step in seeing your business clearly starts with those closest to the operations—your employees, particularly your new ones. If newcomers struggle with confusing processes or encounter systemic problems, you’ll see bad habits develop, which will affect your customers.
So instead of thinking about employee onboarding time as a drag on your company’s productivity, recognize the valuable perspectives you can gain. When new hires document their questions, first impressions of processes and moments they need help, you’ve gathered great insights that can lead to valuable adjustments.
And when new employees see their observations leading to real improvements, they’ll realize they need to carry this “what can we learn from you?” attitude into interactions with customers and clients. This is a key part of building a good company culture. A newcomer’s inexperience has a flip side—an opportunity. Embrace their new perspective and learn from it.
Treat Your Customer Service Channels As Company Architecture
You wouldn’t allow your facilities to fall into disrepair, so don’t allow your communication channels to erode either. Remember the following mantra for communication maintenance: “Call your own business.” You need to look regularly at every entry point and evaluate what vibe people will get. Are you welcoming? Confusing? Hard to reach? What do you want a customer or client to feel when they seek you out, and what do they actually feel?
It’s so important to put fresh eyes on this. You could work with another business owner to establish regular “outsider checks” on your channels. Whatever evaluation method you develop, understand that this is a maintenance issue that’s just as important as any facility matter.
Every business develops some form of communication architecture, and quite often, they treat it as a one-and-done—or a point of attention every few years. That results in the appearance of company complacency. Examine your public-facing company entry points regularly.
Conduct Your Own Language Audit
Do you ever laugh at institutions that have some language of their own that sounds like gobbledygook or ones that overuse acronyms? That moment of bewilderment you feel when encountering their insider speak mirrors how customers might experience your business language.
Consider gathering your customer-facing documents—emails, brochures, instruction manuals, website content—and having someone outside your industry read them aloud. Listen for places where they stumble or their voice takes on that questioning tone. These moments highlight where your expertise might be creating barriers rather than building trust.
It’s also a good practice to gather a month’s worth of customer emails, chat logs and service tickets, then remove all internal context and read them as if you’re encountering your company for the first time. What confusion do you witness? What tone comes through? What adjustments would you like to see?
Leverage Your Employees’ ‘Why?’ And ‘Why not?’
In many companies, potential positives never see sunlight because employees spot operational gaps but stay silent. They’ve learned to work around problems rather than question established methods. They adapt to inefficiencies instead of suggesting alternatives. This creates a dangerous knowledge gap between how things work and how they could work.
Think how much happens because “the bosses want it done this way.” That’s the justification for all sorts of problems. Vow to be different. Think about who you trust on your team, and regularly put the USB cord from their brain to yours. You can periodically ask them for two “whys”—“Why do we do it this way?” This should be followed by two “why nots”—“Why not try this instead?” Maybe their solutions make sense, or maybe not. But this is the business equivalent of an eye exam: “Do the letters look sharper with this lens or this one?” Your vision isn’t as sharp without this testing.
The next breakthrough in your business might not come from what you know, but from what you’re willing to question and see with fresh eyes. This sort of vision just might reveal opportunities that have been hiding in plain sight, waiting for you to step back far enough to spot them.
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