I was working with a client recently to help her prepare for an important virtual meeting and ensure that her team would be deeply engaged in the discussion. It felt like working with clay on a potter’s wheel, and eventually the shape, function, and even beauty of the session became clear. “Wow, I didn’t realize I had many blind spots about how to make this work!” she exclaimed.

Her comment got me thinking about the blind spots we all have. We can fall victim to them so easily, and the challenge is to recognize and address them effectively so you don’t end up in a perpetual vortex of missed opportunities or unforeseen challenges. If you could use some useful strategies on this topic, I hope you’ll check out this week’s video “Check Your Blind Spots.” 

TRANSCRIPT OF VIDEO

Hi, everyone. It’s Carolyn Ellis from BrillianceMastery.com, and thank you so much for joining me for this short video. This is a part of a series that I’m doing to share some of the tips and insights from my new book, Lead Conversations That Count How Busy Managers Run Great Meetings. And today’s tip is called “Check Your Blindspots.“

I noticed in a lot of meetings that I’m part of and designing, and also working with coaching clients, that in the stress of the moment. Sometimes people’s focus gets too narrow. This is just the way our brain works. When our amygdala gets fired up and we get under that stress, we literally develop tunnel vision.

What that can look like in a meeting or in a conversation with people is what we’re focusing on the wrong things. We’re trying to figure out and address these symptoms, and not really stepping back and taking that time to figure out, “Well, why are these problems occurring in the first place?” We can get that kind of fixated perspective, and that’s not helpful when you really want to find a sustainable and effective solution.

I have three tips for you today to help you check your blind spots. Let’s think of the old car as a metaphor.

The First tip is Connect to Your Vision. This is like you’re in your car and you’re looking out the windshield. What’s in front of you? What is it you want? Taking that moment in that time of feeling stressed or like you’re losing focus or you’re just juggling too many balls is to pause, breathe and say, “Wait a second. What is it I’m trying to do here? What’s my vision? Why is that important to me? What’s possible when I can achieve some of these quality of relationships or this clarity of purpose?” As anybody who’s driven a car knows, windshields get dirty. They get fogged up. We smashed into bugs with them. There’s snow, sleet, rain. You got to do what’s needed to make sure that that windshield stays clear so you can stay connected to your vision.

The second tip is Harvest Your Wisdom. This is about checking out the rear view mirror, and just really reflecting back on the past experiences. The past strengths and resources and resourcefulness that you’ve brought to bear in previous times of challenge. What are those lessons that you’ve learned that sometimes we forget about? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Find those winning strategies that you’ve used in the past, bring them forward and be willing to iterate and improve upon them to really address your current circumstances. Don’t forget to check your rear view mirror.

Third thing you want to do is Stay on Your Toes. This is about checking that side view mirror. Isn’t it profound, really, that those side view mirrors say, “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear”? That’s a pretty cosmic wisdom right there, isn’t it? What that means is you got to stay humble and just notice that there’s going to be something that surprises you that will happen in that meeting, in that conversation, in your execution of that great idea that you have in front of you.

What you can do to help stay on your toes is be prepared, be ready to be nimble. I used to play competitive volleyball, we were always told by our coach, “Stay on your toes, be ready to move in any direction at a moment’s notice”, because you just never know where the ball is going to be coming from the other side of the net. Ask for support from people who know you and they can see those blind spots sometimes more readily and more clearly than you can. Ask for help and ask for feedback, but it does require you to stay humble in order to ask for that input.

Just to wrap it all up, you gotta be able to scan all three, just like when you’re driving your car. Your driving instructor probably said, “Make sure that you’re scanning.” Checking your windshield, looking out the front, glancing at your rear view, taking a peek at your side view mirror. And you’re doing that on a continuous basis to really scan your ever-changing environment and all of the relationships and all of the dynamics that are part of your professional or personal life.

I hope that these tips are helpful for you, and checking your blind spots so they can really bring your maximum full potential to bear in your leadership. Thanks so much.

If you have any questions or comments that you’d like to share with me, or just want to get in touch, to see how perhaps some of these ideas could be useful to you or your organization, feel free to reach out and contact me. And I’d be happy to schedule a call.

Thanks so much. And I’ll see you soon.