I have been doing a lot of driving recently, mostly on motorways. One of things I remember learning just after passing my driving test was to always check in the car’s blind spot. If you are changing lanes on a motorway it is not enough to just to look in the wing mirror – you also need to glance quickly to the right or left as the case may be to make sure there is no car in the one spot you can’t see it. I almost did not do this once and only just stopped myself pulling into the path of an overtaking car.
In professional life we can also have blind spots – taking something for granted, underestimating someone, not doublechecking something or maybe being another weak spot in our armoury. A weak spot can be defined as a place of especial vulnerability. soft spot, weak part. weakness - the property of lacking physical or mental strength; liability to failure under pressure or stress or strain.
This Forbes article What are your Blind Spots? eloquently describes how blind spots can represent leadership challenges citing some famous statements that with the benefit of hindsight were spectacularly wrong such as:
IBM’s market position could never be threatened by an upstart company started in somebody’s garage.
It can be a particular challenge in an interview where you are asked “Well tell me about what you are not so good about” – see this article 3 Ways to Answer “What’s your Biggest Weakness?”
And that’s the thing about this, recognising what your blind spots may be and dealing with them – always remembering to look behind in my driving example. Here is a short article on Actions for Improving Weaknesses with some good and simple suggestions for doing this commenting You cannot improve if you do not accept your skill set may be subpar. Reflect on your strengths and weaknesses, and then move forward with a strategic improvement plan.
This article on Techniques for Turning Weaknesses into Strengths has some really good quotes on this subject:
In his book Leadership Blindspots: How Successful Leaders Identify and Overcome the Weaknesses That Matter Robert Bruce Shaw tells us that blindspots may come from a variety of factors including gaps in our experience, emotional biases, misaligned incentives, and other factors that have caused us to not understand the importance of something.
“Managing blindspots is learning to accept them as inevitable and…positive because they force you to remain vigilant.” — Robert Bruce Shaw, Leadership Blindspots.
For the last word let’s turn to sport and Michael Jordan “My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.”
In professional life we can also have blind spots – taking something for granted, underestimating someone, not doublechecking something or maybe being another weak spot in our armoury. A weak spot can be defined as a place of especial vulnerability. soft spot, weak part. weakness - the property of lacking physical or mental strength; liability to failure under pressure or stress or strain.
This Forbes article What are your Blind Spots? eloquently describes how blind spots can represent leadership challenges citing some famous statements that with the benefit of hindsight were spectacularly wrong such as:
IBM’s market position could never be threatened by an upstart company started in somebody’s garage.
It can be a particular challenge in an interview where you are asked “Well tell me about what you are not so good about” – see this article 3 Ways to Answer “What’s your Biggest Weakness?”
And that’s the thing about this, recognising what your blind spots may be and dealing with them – always remembering to look behind in my driving example. Here is a short article on Actions for Improving Weaknesses with some good and simple suggestions for doing this commenting You cannot improve if you do not accept your skill set may be subpar. Reflect on your strengths and weaknesses, and then move forward with a strategic improvement plan.
This article on Techniques for Turning Weaknesses into Strengths has some really good quotes on this subject:
In his book Leadership Blindspots: How Successful Leaders Identify and Overcome the Weaknesses That Matter Robert Bruce Shaw tells us that blindspots may come from a variety of factors including gaps in our experience, emotional biases, misaligned incentives, and other factors that have caused us to not understand the importance of something.
“Managing blindspots is learning to accept them as inevitable and…positive because they force you to remain vigilant.” — Robert Bruce Shaw, Leadership Blindspots.
For the last word let’s turn to sport and Michael Jordan “My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.”
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