what, if any, blind spots does this leader have of which you would like them to be aware

I in one case found myself needing to find new employment. The state of affairs that I was leaving had been complex, to say the least, and I worried that perceptions of failure would dog me as I sought new opportunities. I needed to be aware of my blind spots.

As function of the interview process, I met with an organization's chief executive, who would have been my straight supervisor. After interviewing in person, he took the time to try to enquiry my situation to decide whether I would be an asset to him. Soon after our meeting, he chosen me to say that he had spoken with people familiar with my performance and was prepared to hire me at present that he ameliorate understood my "blind spots."

Every bit you could probable imagine, this half-baked endorsement did not practice much to increment my desire to work for him. On a positive note, the chat did alert me to an important aspect of leadership that leaders oftentimes fail to perceive — namely, their blind spots.

John C. Maxwell defines a blind spot as "an expanse in the lives of people in which they continually do not see themselves or their situation realistically." Leadership blind spots can be found in many areas, such as workplace knowledge or expertise, leadership style, relationships or some other primal domain.

A Hay Group study shows that the senior leaders in an organization are more likely to overrate themselves and to develop blind spots that can hinder their effectiveness as leaders. Another report, this past Development Dimensions International Inc., found that 89% of front-line leaders have at least one blind spot in their leadership skills.

Permit'due south be frank. We all have them, regardless of our robust talents and successes. We may know a lot almost our work and our industry and think that there'south zilch else for use to acquire. Possibly we see ourselves as connecting smashing with others and fail to place problematic relations. Maybe we think that we run great meetings, while participants experience disengaged or that we do not solicit sufficient input. Regardless of the issue, we need to exist cognizant that things aren't always as rosy every bit nosotros may remember and we'd do good from getting and maintaining as clear a picture show as possible of our task performance.

According to Robert Bruce Shaw, author of "Leadership Blindspots: How Successful Leaders Identify and Overcome the Weaknesses That Thing," there are a few blind spots that many leaders suffer from. These include:

• Strategic thinking. Shaw maintains that many leaders are meliorate at managing operations than thinking strategically. Leaders who overestimate their strategic capabilities can face up serious bug when they're promoted into senior-level roles. Such roles put a premium on identifying and acting on new growth opportunities, which is something that's difficult to focus on if you're bogged down in managerial tasks.
• All-knowing.Some bosses think that they know more than everybody else most everything and anything. Executives in this category don't consider others' points of view on most issues. They often prefer existence right to being effective. Not only are they non always correct, just they distance themselves from their brain trust and make it harder to explore challenges and potential pitfalls.
• Many executives make the mistake of assuming that other people are merely like them. They assume that they are motivated by similar things, think similarly, and would concur with the leader's decisions. Every bit preposterous as this may sound, many leaders only assume that others come across things merely every bit they do. Shaw said that this propensity for supposition can atomic number 82 to poor decisions and weak piece of work relationships. Sometimes, leaders exacerbate this problem by hiring people who are like them instead of hiring individuals who have complementary skills. In the"Top Ten Mistakes that Entrepreneurs Make," Guy Kawasaki includes one of the nigh pervasive blind spots that leaders often have. As Kawasaki puts it, "You need to balance off all the talents in a company."
• Stuck-in-the-by bullheaded. Ofttimes, leaders assume that their past experiences can help them gear up new problems. While this may be true at times, Shaw says, leaders volition often default to old methods that practise not fit the electric current situation. Every bit Abraham Maslow once wrote, "I suppose information technology is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything every bit if it were a nail." Often, leaders' want to accept activity hinders their ability to pursue or consider alternative responses.

So how can leaders meet past their blind spots to ensure that they are non misled most their performance and, more importantly, fail to provide the kind of objective, supportive and collaborative leadership that their people want? Shaw suggests these strategies:

• Install a warning arrangement.Have at least one person who can offering you feedback that prevents you from existence blindsided. I did this as a caput of school (nosotros chosen it a Head Support Committee) and that worked wonders for me in terms of getting genuine, constructive feedback in a style that did not make members feel uncomfortable in sharing their thoughts.
• Build a good team.Build a various team of smart people who are willing to engage with the leader and each other in productive talks and debates on the best path forward.
• Assess yourself from time to time. Use 360-degree surveys, skip-level interviews or similar feedback mechanism that point out areas of potential weakness.

Hither are some other ideas worth considering:

• Go a peer mentor. Every leader can do good from peer coaching with leaders in other organizations. This mail service discusses qualities to look for in a mentor.
• Be cogitating.Leaders would practise well to call up back on their past successes and failures equally a leader. What has worked for you until now? Where did you go yourself into trouble?
• Work on relationships. Relationships are the glue that hold everything in the workplace together. And then much of what drives success and failure can be traced to the nature of the relational dynamic. Leaders would exist well-advised to work hard on building and maintaining relationships.

Proceed in mind that most folks don't expect perfection from their leaders. They do, even so, expect a leader who is self-aware and takes proper steps to minimize their impact of their blind spots. While these strategies may not eliminate our deficiencies, they tin certainly reduce the frequency of them appearing while besides diminishing their affect.

Naphtali Hoff ( @impactfulcoach ) became an executive omnibus and consultant following a 15-twelvemonth career as an educator and school administrator.

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