SEEING PERCEIVED BLINDSPOTS FOR REAL GROWTH

If you’re a business or organizational leader, you probably hope and believe that your messages, both verbal and nonverbal, will be received by others the way you intend, but many things can prevent that from happening. For example, behavior or tone can unintentionally sabotage or dilute your communications and reduce your influence.

As a Business Growth Specialist, I try to illuminate what I call “professional blind spots” that cause smart, well-meaning leaders to be perceived in negative ways by their co-workers. These otherwise talented people simply don’t recognize that an underlying attitude or subtle behavior is hurting them and holding them back. Simply put, they’re blind to their own problems.

Reality vs. Perception

I’ve worked with clients who suffer from a wide range of blind spots. They have positive attributes, which, unknowingly to them, are perceived by others in a negative way. These negative perceptions can have a long term effect on reputation. For instance, people who are:

·      Intelligent and highly qualified but perceived by others to be condescending and elitist.

·      Decisive and candid but perceived by others to be abrupt and insensitive.

·      Extremely energetic and driven but perceived by others to be relentless and unrealistic.

·      Composed and steady but perceived by others to be robotic and indifferent.

·      Methodical and compliant but perceived by others to be inflexible and overly cautious.

·      Assertive and enthusiastic but perceived by others to be self-serving and inappropriate.

·      Spirited and passionate but perceived by others to be intense and overzealous.

·      Reliable and high performing but perceived by others to be one-dimensional and over-functioning.

How to get a 20/20 look at your own blind spots.

How can we identify our own blind spots and help our direct reports do the same? We must look at ourselves honestly, invite others we respect to give us feedback, and be willing to make changes.

1. Start by spending some time thinking about how you want to be perceived

   What’s your ideal reputation? How do you want to make an impact on others? How do you want to communicate and interact with your colleagues? How do you hope to make others feel?

2. Get feedback from others

   This can be difficult, but the pay off is tremendous. You even may discover hidden strengths you’ve never recognized but your colleagues appreciate. Whether comments you collect are positive or negative, push yourself to think of them as a tool for improving your influence. By looking at your feedback as a valuable asset rather than a judgment or criticism, you’ll be able to analyze it objectively and apply it productively.

Need help seeing your blindspots?

A DISC assessment can be exceedingly helpful when it comes to discerning strengths and possible areas of misperception. Make sure your assessment is top-of-the-line, scientifically-based and proven. (We recommend TTI ) and that you are getting expert interpretation and explanation of the results.

Learn more about our approach to DISC assessments here.