What are blind spots at work?

Q: What is a blind spot in the workplace?

A Blind Spot can be defined as an area where you lack awareness of your weaknesses. If you consider this from the perspective of your strengths, when we are in our Blind Spot we feel frustrated and confused.

Below is an excerpt from my new coaching and peer mastermind modules, The 24/7 Leader: Transforming Personal & Professional Life:

Table of Contents Show

Inspiring leaders know their strengths and look for them in others.
Your Leadership Coaching Challenge:
Blind Spot 1: Using in-office approaches in a work-from-home world
Blind Spot 2: Expecting your teams to work at your pace
Blind Spot 3: Constantly playing devil’s advocate
Blind Spot 4: Believing that constant doing leads to success
What is a blind spot in the workplace?
What does it mean to have blind spot?

Inspiring leaders know their strengths and look for them in others.

But that’s only one part of the equation, because for every strength, there’s an accompanying blind spot—behaviors or attributes others may see, but we don’t.

Missing skills are difficult to see. So are the gaps that result from overusing our strengths.

For example, “Juan” saw himself as an exceptional employee, so he didn’t understand why his boss never promoted him. He wanted a leadership role, so he reached out to me for coaching.

Juan’s assessment revealed he was highly task-focused. Suspecting that he was overusing this strength and that had resulted in a corresponding blind spot, I conducted a perceptual interview 360 assessment. Juan's boss described how he never offered creative solutions to current problems or thought strategically about the future. When people wanted to brainstorm new product ideas in meetings, he’d find friendly ways to say, “That’s not on our to-do list today. Let’s focus on getting this work done!” But then he would not follow up to brainstorm the new product ideas.

Juan's drive to accomplish tasks resulted in an unwillingness to grapple with issues on the horizon.

Below are some overused strengths that are associated with typical blind spot behavioral tendencies:

Courage overused can be seen as obnoxious and arrogant

Focused – Too intense; can’t see big picture

Friendly – Too chatty; misses cues to focus on work

Optimistic – Unaware of risks; doesn’t plan for hurdles; discouraged when they arise

Reliable – Stubborn; resists change; conflict-avoidant

Great Listener – Wishy-washy; unwilling to express or defend viewpoint

Diplomatic – Aloof; emotionally disengaged from others

Decisive – Dictatorial; poor listener; moves too fast; overly blunt

Accurate – Rigid thinking inhibits creativity and innovation; anxiety over making mistakes leads to fear-based decisions

Human beings are complex creatures. We might think we know ourselves and have a sense of how we come across to others, but it’s extraordinarily difficult to peer into those areas hidden from us, obscured by our strengths and masked by our ignorance. Yet our blind spots are often painfully obvious to others!

Your Leadership Coaching Challenge:

If you want to know how you come across to others, consider doing a 360 assessment or asking for feedback. If you ask for feedback, include these questions:

What would you like more of from me?
What would you like less of from me?
What gets in the way of me being as successful or efficient as I could be?

The best option for leaders who want comprehensive feedback about their strengths and blind spots is a perceptual interview 360 assessment like the one I conducted for Juan.

Once leaders understand their own strengths and blind spots, they can do a better job of leading themselves and others.

If you would like to take this deeper, join "The 24/7 Leader" coaching process and peer mastermind. To enroll, please contact us. For more support in your team's development, let's talk: 888-959-1188.

Ready to learn more?
Contact us at 888-959-1188

If you feel like you're doing all the right things to position yourself as a strong leader—ready for that next level—but promotions keep passing you by, you might be suffering from the effects of a professional blind spot. I'm referring to unconscious behaviors and habits that you may not see, but others do. These actions can get in the way of showing up as your best self and, if never addressed, they could derail your career.

The good news is that you can manage these professional blind spots with small changes. And with some simple adjustments in your behaviors and attitudes, you can shift your professional trajectory, catapulting your career far beyond the limits of any technical or functional expertise.

Here are four examples of professional blind spots from my LinkedIn Learning course, Understanding the Leadership Behaviors that Can Sabotage Your Success.

Remote work has become a fact of life in our current world, so it's important to think about how that affects your ability to lead.

My top advice is to check on rather than just check in with your team members, and do that more frequently. Why? Because your employees' wellbeing is a top priority. Swap your monthly one-on-one meetings for weekly check-ins so that you can be more tuned in and helpful in the moment. Find out what kind of support would allow them to be more productive, and do what you can to accommodate them by adjusting their schedules, timelines or metrics. Your team members won't be at their best if they're suffering from the stress of feeling isolated.

Instead of using virtual team events to inform, instruct and delegate, shift the emphasis. Distribute status updates before meetings. Then reserve those online forums for calibrating, collaborating and innovating. You'll demonstrate that you care about your team members' time and energy, your meetings will be more efficient, and you'll likely get the chance to build a sense of community during those gatherings.

Take the time to celebrate your team members’ success. Acknowledge and appreciate their contributions, and highlight those who have put in extra effort. Encourage your team members to do the same for their peers. We tend to forget that breakroom opportunities for quick compliments or praise are no longer an option. We have to be intentional about recreating those moments.

If you have the ability to work at peak velocity for hours on end, you have the potential to be an extraordinary leader. But if you expect everyone else to work at your pace or your capacity, then this attribute can hold you back. You don’t want to get a reputation as the adrenaline-overloaded person who leaves everyone else in the dust.

You can minimize that professional blind spot by watching for clues that people around you are getting tired or frustrated with your pace and deliberately slowing down. Try to meet them where they are by asking questions like, "Would it be helpful to take a break?" or “Should I pause and recap?” If you notice people are feeling overwhelmed, you can ask, "What would you need for this to feel more doable?"

Also think about how you set deadlines. Does every project get labeled “urgent,” or do you have the flexibility to reclassify some of them? Step back and consider what's really necessary versus what's reasonable, given the pace of your team. If you can generally relax the time constraints, you'll get better cooperation from your employees when you really need them to turn up the heat.

Bringing up potential pitfalls and possible risks can be incredibly valuable during team discussions. But if you’re always playing that role, you may unknowingly develop a reputation as the voice of doom. Instead of adding value, you’ll start to come across as someone who is uncooperative, just making things harder for the team.

Even if it is your job to ensure due diligence, understand that not every discussion requires that you raise the red flag. Know when it's the right time to push and when it's the right time to hold back.

Also, focus on being supportive. Try to come up with alternatives that classify as a win-win solution, and keep an open mind about ending the discussion with a compromise. Ultimately, you want to come across as persuasive, not contentious.

Are you someone who’s never met a to-do list you didn’t like? Can you crank out deliverables at epic speed? Are you in a class of your own when it comes to organizing projects? While productivity is essential for success, you don’t want to get pigeonholed as someone whose biggest contribution is to seamlessly handle every detail. Instead of striving to be a “doer,” you need to also be seen as a “driver” — someone who can think big picture, communicate persuasively, and inspire others.

To break out of the “doing” rut, look beyond the details to the people. Let go of the idea that your value is based on your tangible output and mass technical skills. Instead, think of your impact in terms of how well you can engage, influence and motivate others.

Be more intentional about moving your emphasis from tactical to strategic. Incorporate high-level objectives in your discussions to demonstrate that you have a clear line of sight to the bigger picture. Don't rush through meetings, just briefing others or being briefed. Take the time to contribute your unique thoughts and perspectives based on your years of experience and your domain expertise. Doing so will show others that you can add value in a conversation and that you've developed some thought leadership.

Recognize that not every request or problem requires your immediate and personal attention. Learn to prioritize what will most move you and your team forward, and master the art of delegation. This will not only free up your time to sharpen your leadership skills, but you'll also be contributing to the growth of those on your team.

Finally, take on projects or initiatives that will shine a light on a different skill set. Let people see you as a big-picture thinker, a driver, a discoverer. And when you do, you'll begin to change the false perception that you're not yet ready for advancement.

For more examples of professional blind spots and strategies to eliminate them, watch Understanding the Leadership Behaviors that Can Sabotage Your Success with Sara Canaday.

A Blind Spot can be defined as an 'area where you lack awareness of your weaknesses. ' If you consider this from the perspective of your strengths, when we are in our Blind Spot we feel frustrated and confused.

If you say that someone has a blind spot about something, you mean that they seem to be unable to understand it or to see how important it is.