Leadership Blind Spots

A beautiful young woman traveling with her grandmother, and a handsome young army lieutenant who was with his commanding officer were sharing a cabin on a train from Berlin to Madrid just after WWII.

On the way the train passed through a tunnel, and the cabin became pitch black.

In the darkness the sound of a kiss was followed by that of a slap. When the train emerged from the tunnel, the four sat stone faced as if nothing had happened.

The beautiful young woman thought to herself, “That was a wonderful kiss, but why did my grandmother slap his face? He probably thinks I did it and he won’t pay attention to me again.”

The grandmother thinks, “That’s a fresh thing for that man to kiss my granddaughter. I’m sure glad she stood up for herself, I’m sure it will teach him a lesson.”

The commanding officer thought, “She must have thought I was the one who kissed her, good on him though.”

And the handsome young lieutenant thought, “This was my day. I got to kiss a beautiful woman, slap my CO and get away with both.”

This is by far my favorite blind spot story. It perfectly illustrates one of the biggest and most common blind spots a leader can have, the one of narrow minded singular perspective. Only one person in the train knew exactly what happened, but even he didn’t know what everyone else’s reaction was going to be, nor the outcome after his actions could have yielded.

John C. Maxwell has long being a dominant figure in the field of leadership. When he speaks of leadership blind spots he gives us 6.

1. Singular perspective
2. Insecurity
3. Devaluing people 
4. An out of control ego
5. Lack of character
6. Living in your weak zone, instead of your strength zone

To this list I would add two more, the first has to do with strategy and the second with emotional intelligence.

1. Lack of objectivity
2. Lack of empathy

Objectivity allows us to look at the bigger picture and with it we are able to avoid things such as a singular perspective or getting stuck in the details. Empathy gives us the power to see other people’s point of view thus avoiding an out of control ego and devaluing people.

As everything rises and falls on leadership, it is the responsibility of a leader to seek out her or his blindspots in order to continue leading, growing and prospering.

How do you spot your own blindspots?

They are your blindspots, and as such it is not likely you’ll be able to spot them yourself.

“You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together we can do great things.” — Mother Teresa

As a leader you will depend on others to point out your blindspots. You must NEVER allow your ego to get in the way of clarity. Set your ego aside with your inner circle, and make sure you listen to what they have to say about your blind spots.

Blindspots are weaknesses, an area in your life in which you continually do not see yourself or your situation realistically. 

As such you may want to delegate anything which directly has to do with these.

Here is part of tool I use with my team to understand and eliminate my blindspots:

1. Asume you have a blindspot.
2. If you believe you don’t have a blindspot then that’s your blindspot and you must take action NOW!
3. Ask the people who know you best, within and out of your organization, to honestly tell you your blindspots
4. Openly discuss your blindspots with your inner circle
5. Make sure you understand there is very little or no chance of your blindspots to be removed
6. Train or recruit a person or a team who’s strengths cover your blindspot
7. Trust and value the people who cover your blindspots

As a leader you have a team and you are responsible to them. Value your team and trust them to cover your weaknesses.

My personal blind spots have a lot to do with my character and my talents. It is a counterweight of sorts. I am great at developing vision, strategy and leadership through emotional intelligence, this makes me feel confident and it drives me. This drive is purposeful and so I trot or gallup through life wanting to do more and contribute more. I never really noticed this also made me reckless with the small details of running a business.

It was a combination of coaching from Stephen Covey and latter by the John Maxwell team that I understood I had blind spots and it was thanks to some trusted people I was able to understand what they are. Today, a couple of my coaches cover these blindspots for me brilliantly. But this required a series of very open and uncomfortable conversations where pride was put aside and humility was put at the very front.

I feel so strongly about dealing with blindspots, I developed a structured strategy and a set of tools to identify blindspots and eliminate them from your organization.

For free tools and more information please visit my website and subscribe to my Newsletter.

I look forward to reading your comments and answering your questions.

Till then, if you can’t see, let others see for you.

Share it and use it!

Peter Jansen