Originally published by Richard A. Moran on LinkedIn: Check Your Blind Spot

At the eye doctor last week, I couldn’t help but notice the headline in a medical journal for ophthalmologists. It read: Dealing with Blind Spot Syndrome. That could be a headline in a business magazine for managers, I thought. I have seen the Blind Spot Syndrome at work in organizations.

In medicine, a blind spot is an obscurity of the visual field. A blind spot occurs when certain cells fail to detect light so the corresponding part of the field of vision is invisible. However, our brain compensates for the blind spot based on surrounding detail and information from the other eye, so we do not normally perceive the blind spot. In medical blind spots, not only do we not see, we don’t know that we are not seeing.

In business blind spots, we probably don’t recognize a behavior or a trait and we think others don’t see the behavior or trait. But they do see. And, it gets worse. When we have a blind spot, we are oblivious to how bad we can look to others.

Organizational Blind Spots Could Include:

• Annoying habits like clipping fingernails in staff meetings or re-heating leftover burritos that smell up the office.

• Wearing bad clothes or not keeping up on the hygiene front and thinking that others won’t notice.

• Showing favorites and conversely, ignoring others.

• Flouting your relationship with the boss. It’s called brown nosing.

• Believing you are getting away with not working as hard as your colleagues. They know.

• Wasting the time of others. Hanging around in the doorway chatting about last night’s game may not always be welcome.

• Showing up late all the time and apologizing.

• Rolling your eyes at other’s ideas or suggestions.

• Standing outside the building talking on your cell. Others will notice and think you are interviewing for a job.

The blind spot list could be much longer and you can use your imagination to develop the list further. The worst thing about a blind spot is that you are blind to what others see and know. A blind spot can make you less effective and make you seem clueless.

With some listening and reflection, blind spots can be avoided. When someone says something like, “You may not be aware of this but…”

PAY ATTENTION. Being self -aware is the best solution to blind spots. All the management research shows that a self-aware leader is an effective leader. Take that time for a little self-evaluation from time to time.

Being blind to what others see is not an excuse to keep doing something that hurts your performance.

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