How to Find Your Leadership Blind Spots

A blind spot is a gap between intention and impact

Most blind spots are not hidden weaknesses. They are strengths used too much, or used in the wrong setting. Decisiveness turns into not listening. High standards turn into hovering. Warmth turns into avoiding difficult conversations.

The Johari window describes this neatly: there is a part of you that others can see and you cannot. Your task is not to eliminate that area, which is impossible, but to keep shrinking it through regular, honest information.

Signals in other people's behaviour that point to a blind spot

You can spot clues before anyone gives you feedback. Watch how people behave around you, because behaviour is often more honest than words.

How to ask for feedback people will actually give

General requests such as 'Any feedback for me?' produce polite answers. Specific, low-risk questions produce useful ones.

1. 01

   Ask about one behaviour, not your whole leadership

   Try: 'In our team meetings, what is one thing I do that makes it harder for people to speak up?' A narrow question is easier to answer honestly.

2. 02

   Ask for more and less

   Try: 'What should I do more of, and less of, to make your work easier?' Framing it as adjustments rather than faults lowers the stakes for the other person.

3. 03

   Make it safe to tell you

   Ask in private and say why you are asking. In hierarchical settings it helps to add: 'I am asking because I want to improve, and nothing you say will count against you.'

4. 04

   Respond with thanks only

   Say 'Thank you, that is useful', and stop. Explaining, justifying or correcting the person teaches them never to tell you again.

5. 05

   Close the loop

   A few weeks later, tell them what you tried because of what they said. People give more feedback to leaders who visibly use it.

Use a structured review when the stakes are higher

Informal questions work well for day-to-day habits. For a senior appointment, a promotion or a pattern that keeps repeating, a structured process gives you a wider and more anonymous view. A 360 review collects input from your manager, peers and team at the same time, so you can see where perceptions agree. The explainer on what 360-degree feedback is covers how it works.

Whichever route you use, look for themes that appear from more than one source. A single comment may say more about the person who made it. Three similar comments are information you can act on.

What gets in the way when you hear something uncomfortable

• ✦Arguing with the example. The specific incident may be wrong in detail while the pattern is still accurate.
• ✦Discounting the source. It is tempting to dismiss feedback from someone you find difficult. Difficult colleagues often see what friends politely ignore.
• ✦Trying to fix everything at once. Choose one blind spot, the one with the biggest effect on your team, and work on it for a month.
• ✦Swinging to the opposite. A leader told they dominate meetings may go silent, which creates a new problem. Aim for a deliberate middle.
• ✦Keeping it private. Telling your team what you are working on gives them permission to help and makes the change visible.

What this looks like in practice: a finance manager's open door

Imagine a newly promoted finance manager in a Bahraini bank who prides himself on an open door. He notices that his team rarely raises problems until month end, when they have become urgent. When he asks two analysts what makes it harder to bring issues early, both mention the same thing: when someone flags a risk, his first question is 'Why didn't you catch this sooner?'

He meant it as curiosity. They heard blame. His blind spot was not his accessibility; it was his first sentence. He changes one habit: when someone raises a problem, he opens with 'Thanks for flagging it. What do you need?' Within a few weeks, issues start arriving earlier.

The manager is invented for illustration, but the shape is a familiar one: the blind spot sits in a small, repeated moment rather than in a grand trait.

What a coach adds to the search for blind spots

A coach is one of the few people with no stake in your organisation's politics and no reason to soften what they notice. In sessions, I ask questions that bring your assumptions into view, and I listen to how you describe people and situations. Often the blind spot shows up in the story itself.

If you want a structured starting point, 360 feedback coaching combines confidential input from colleagues with coaching sessions to make sense of it and act on it. For the wider habit of noticing yourself in real time, read the guide to self-awareness in leadership.