My friend and colleague, Kaveh Naficy, has a beautifully written blog called Leadership Crescendo. Just to give you a taste of his thoughtful wisdom, I’m excerpting some of his writing here about the common coachable blind spots leaders face. He’s done a great job of detailing the blind spots that I, too, have seen frequently in my executive clients. All of us have blind spots, and leaders can improve effectiveness with awareness of their blind spots. Of course there’s no substitute for working one on one with an executive coach to identify your own personal blind spots and how they impact your effectiveness, but in case you want a general blind spot list to start your personal inquiry, this will serve you well. Check out the posts below and see if this resonates with your experience. I encourage you to visit his blog for the full scoop and more gems!
The story is now legendary. Tiger Woods, after winning the 1997 Masters Golf Tournament by an unprecedented 12 strokes, set about changing his golf swing to achieve even greater success. I have seen many leaders rise to unprecedented success only to realize later that they, too, need to “change their swing.”
Leaders in organizations come up the rank using strengths that are natural preferences for them. However, there is a tendency on the part of many executives to “overuse” these strengths and in some ways they become prisoners to them. This is most often visible in sensitive and stressful situations where leaders lose their resonance, sense of balance and anchors.
Here are five leadership blind spots that are coachable if the leader enters a coaching relationship with a learning mindset and engages in meaningful journey of self-exploration and learning.Blind Spot # 1 – Bias for Action
Blind Spot # 2 – Unwillingness To Change Decisions With New Information
Blind Spot # 3 – Over Reliance On What Has Worked In The Past
Blind Spot #4 – Not Invented Here—Change It!!
Blind Spot #5 – Just The Facts Please…