Find Your Blind Spots

We all live our own lives, in our own ways, gathering our own impressions and perspectives. This means that we all develop an understanding that is limited to our own lens. We are often blind to the way that things are when they don’t align with what we see. It’s a classic, “You don’t know what you don’t know", scenario.  

The same happens professionally. We may think we are good at something, and that we are meeting expectations, when in reality we may not be performing as well as we thought. Our limited scope doesn’t always paint the full picture, and it is important to acknowledge that. These areas are called blind spots, which are areas where we have an inability to recognize where we are deficient. Fortunately for us, though, there are ways to overcome our blind spots.

Try using a group think approach. This is why working in a team can be so effective. Instead of relying and moving forward with your own impressions, convinced they are correct, you can hear other people’s impressions and realize that your decision making may be neglecting key factors.  For this to be effective, everyone in the group must have an open mind and realize that the same information may be interpreted a number of ways. Then reconvene and find a compromise among everyone’s insights likely leads to the most effective decision.

For matters that affect you as an individual, it is very similar. Have people in your network that challenge your insights because their influence will help you gain clarity to what exists in your blind spots. You then take it from there, knowing what you didn’t before. You can begin filling in the gaps in your skill-set or your thought processes.