If you are a driver, you know very well what a blind spot is. You can experience this if you are switching lanes or when overtaking. This is how John Maxwell, in his article on Leadership, compared the "blind spots" that leaders have.
I enjoy reading Maxwell's articles on Leadership and I thought I would share it with you. According to him, a blind spot occurs when one does not see his real situation and this happens in some or almost every aspect of being a leader. Inevitably, this could affect a leader's over-all decision making capacity when he sees only one side. It would be difficult for him to understand his subordinates if his unawareness engulfs him. Maxwell used singular perspective to describe more aptly what a blind spot is.
The article stressed also that before a leader can be understood, he must understand. It also discussed the importance for leaders to do a self-examination so as to broaden his limited view. This statement is so true not only for leaders but for any ordinary individual. Often, we only see one angle... one facet of a situation.
On a personal note, this Blind spot in our life can also be the root of conflicts arising in human relationships. As a person, we all have different roles in our lives. I, for one, am a mother, a wife, a sister, a friend, an employer, just to name a few characters that I assume. And there are some people that I know who assume greater roles. In my day to day encounter with life, I would find myself in a situation wherein a conflict is brewing. Applying this Blind spot of John Maxwell, we will realize that we have to see where the other person is coming from for you to be able to understand his/her actions. One must be reflective as to why he/she is reacting this way? However, this capability to be introspective does not come easily especially if we have just met this person and sometimes even if we do know this person, we have to go deeper by tracing how this person thinks and the events surrounding him or her.
People are not wired the same way. We may be married with our husbands or wives for a decade yet still not totally understand this person who shares the same bed with us. We may have grown up with our siblings but still have spats with them. We may have a childhood friend that still never fails to amaze us why he does some things. When we take into consideration what the other person is thinking and feeling then we would become more open to communication. Every so often, when we are in a "not-so-good situation", we tend to think inward focusing only on what concerns us. Thinking out of the box is what we must commit to do.
By constantly checking our blind spots and through self scrutiny, we could hopefully diminish, if not totally remove, the big and small conflicts in our relationships. If this happens, then this world will just be a better place to live in.
1 comment:
Very interesting…. And a good connection made by you of Maxwell’s blind spot to the people in our lives.
On the leadership front, amongst many- I think there are two important aspects. One as Maxwell suggests, assessing the situation from different perspectives including listening to the subordinates, their views. The other is understanding what makes people tick.
Interestingly many a times the subordinates are caught in these blind spots and the leaders got to switch on the flood lights to improve their vision.
A recent example – My wife wanted to couple of days back visit her ailing mother in Trichy. I can come up with one hundred reasons and grumbles for availing leave from work. And she said – “you can drive up n back”. That removed the blind spot in me. Thoughtfully retracted from the earlier position and agreed on the importance of visiting Mother-in-law especially when she’s sick….
I love to hit the highways in car…. The leadership managed to hit two mangoes with one stone :-))))
Well summarized… from bed sharer, to offspring, to neighbour, to relatives, to friends - the Out-of-Box thinking could throw light on their eccentricities... Ooops ;-D
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