First, let’s start with the big news: my family and I moved to Nashville last week!
😄 for new opportunities, but 😢 for missing Memphis, the only home our family’s known.
If you’ve ever moved long-distance you know there’s lots of fun and not-so-fun activities involved. One of the fun activities? Renting high roof cargo vans and Tetris-izing all our small and “light-weight” items. Even more fun? Driving the cargo vans back and forth across Tennessee. It was as close as I’ll ever be to pretending like I’m Jerry Reed.
As soon as I got into the van I realized one big difference from what I’m used to: no rear view mirror! It wouldn’t have mattered if there was one since there was a wall right behind my seat.
I had to acclimate quickly to ensure I got everything (including me!) to Nashville safely. That meant recognizing and paying attention all new, larger blind spots.
When we’re driving, we have blind spots where we can’t see what’s happening right around us. And we have blind spots in our professional lives too.
When it comes to driving a cargo van, the bigger the van, the larger your blind spots will be. And when it comes to leadership and your personal brand, the bigger your role, the larger the damage your blind spots can cause.
Blind spots can be a major weak spot of leadership. Weaknesses are those aspects we know of that we can intentionally work on with practice and time. Blind spots? Those are personal traits or habits we don’t even know about that limit the way we act, react, behave or believe. And that limits your effectiveness as a leader.
In her book, Fearless Leadership, Loretta Malandro identifies the top ten behavioral blind spots that can derail leaders.
- Going it alone
- Being insensitive of your behavior on others
- Having an “I know” attitude
- Avoiding the difficult conversations
- Blaming others or circumstances
- Treating commitments casually
- Conspiring against others
- Withholding emotional commitment
- Not taking a stand
- Tolerating “good enough”
Even if you don’t recognize any of those blind spots in yourself, there’s likely others that you’re missing.
Yes — as a leader you have to be confident in your abilities. At the same time, you need to have enough wisdom to recognize that you’re not going to see everything. And that’s okay. Being aware of and recognizing your blind spots will help you maintain that confidence in the face of obstacles.
Here’s three steps to work on developing your blind spots.
1. Get feedback. Tell your family, friends, colleagues, team members and your leadership that you want to identify attributes and habits that are holding you back. Ask them to give you three items you can improve on to be more effective in your role. Does this step scare you? Maybe insecurity is one of your blind spots.
2. Audit your most recent challenges. What are some struggles you had to deal with recently? Take some accountability and figure out what you could have done differently to have improved the situation. If this is a common situation for you, this could be one of your blind spots.
3. Work with someone. Find a coach or a mentor to help you identify your blind spots and develop action plans for managing them. Taking the time to develop self awareness of your blind spots is extremely valuable. By discovering and resolving them you’ll be a much more effective leader. When that happens, morale improves, productivity increases, and your team becomes more effective right with you.
