I’ve worked in Corp America for 30 years, aside from incompetence and poor work ethic the main reason I see people hit career snags is due to their blind spots. I know that’s a big statement, but it’s true. Having transitioned from Corp America to leadership coaching I now help individuals work through their blind spots. Many times these blind spots have turned into career hurdles or even roadblocks. Unfortunately I know most people don’t have direct access to a coach. Therefore I hope this article will help raise awareness of the subject and encourage people to tackle their blind spots. I outline a few options at the end of the article.

Let’s start with the basics, what is a blind spot?   Webster says a blind spot is “an area where a person’s view is obstructed.” This can by a physical limitation such as a blind spot in the side-view mirror on your car, however that type isn’t very interesting for this discussion. In this context, a blind spot is a trait or behavior I have that I cannot see, but is a trait or behavior that others around me see. So let’s look at some real examples as a way to solidify:

Individual Contributors

• Your view: “I am very careful with my work and always double check everything so that people can count on me. My boss appreciates my thoroughness” Their view: “She is afraid to take any kind of a risk or make any mistake, it slows her down and therefore I don’t think I want her on this new project”.
• Your view: “I always try to explain the details about my work to my boss so that she understands everything, she appreciates it”. Their view: “This guy is killin’ me with all the details. I just need the high-level points and he takes forever to explain every point. I avoid him when I can because I don’t have time for him.”

Managers, Leaders, and Executives

• My view: “I like-management-by-walking-around. Usually I stop by to get status to offer advice to my team members. On average I see them at least two times a day. They appreciate the support”. Their view: “This dude is a total micromanager and doesn’t trust me. He stops by all the time to check up on me and tell me what to do.”
• My view: “When any of the executives give me a task I can knock it out of the park. I’m an execution machine!” Their view: “He’s great at getting things done but he’s poor at any type of strategic thinking.”

The last example is from my own personal history. It was particularly insidious because I thought I was doing a great job but my career was stuck because I didn’t have skills to think strategically and look for opportunities beyond my current tasking.

So hopefully I’ve convinced you that blind spots are real, they can have a impact on you, and by definition you can’t see them.  So where do we go from here?

Step #1 – Finding Tools You Can Use

Here are some suggestions:

• A simple place I like to start is a personality profile such as ProScan, DiSC,  etc. Any of these are a good first step. They cost $50 on the web and if you take the time to read the analysis carefully you may resonate with some of the “challenges” for a personality type.
• A 360 profile is similar to a personality profile however it will solicit input from your manager, peers, and people you lead. I favor these profiles because they give a much more accurate and complete picture. If facilitated correctly this can be a powerful tool to increase your awareness of how others see you.
• Business simulation – There are many simple business simulations to observe how you react under simulated pressure, however I favor using an escape room. We own a mobile escape room that we take to companies where we have teams work through the escape room and we observe them through cameras. In this venue we can quickly identify blind spots for many of the team members.
• Coach – If you have access to a coach or qualified manager I would highly recommend taking advantage of that opportunity. They are trained to help you identify your blind spots and put practices into place that will help eliminate your blind spots.
• Close friends and co-workers – If you completely trust someone, can be vulnerable to feedback, and have a thick skin, then it’s possible to receive the feedback directly from the source. Be careful that you don’t push back on the feedback, just absorb the info and carefully consider it.

This is an overview to blind spots. In future articles we’ll explore non-work related blind spots, team blind spots, cultural blind spots, public identity, as well as techniques to work with each.

Being owners of a mobile escape room for the last two years we’ve seen a large rise in their popularity. We’ve also seen an increase in business teams using these facilities for their team building events and training. Team building and the fun fast pace of an escape room is a great match. We personally monitor each team in the escape room and we’ve noticed clear patterns for success. Specifically, these highly collaborative teams have several common team skills which contribute to their success both in the escape room and, as we find when talking with them after the event, also back in the office.

These patterns are so prevalent for the successful teams that we will be sharing these “escape room cheat” in the hopes they will improve your chances in an escape room, but more importantly in the office context as well.

So, let’s start with a simple explanation of an escape room for those that are not familiar. If you already know the context for an escape room then you can skip this section. Most escape rooms are a large area where a team can work together to solve puzzles with the goal of exiting the escape room before time runs out. Typically, each escape room has a theme, for example our mobile escape room is a 1960’s themed prison including a warden’s area, real jail cell, and stainless steel toilet. Teams work together to find clues, piece together information, solve puzzles, and ultimately deduce the sequence that allows them to unlock the door and exit the room.

One of the most prevalent skills we see from the high performing teams is their ability for everyone to communicate effectively. We’ve coined the phrase “it’s one thing to speak but it’s another thing to be heard”. Even within the chaos of the escape room (and the office context) each member is able to fully listen and communicate information about the clues their seeing and the ideas they have for solving puzzles, in other words getting stuff done! The best practices we see fall into these areas:

• In the escape room, as within a team meeting, there’s an ebb and flow of communication as different people find clues and advocate for ideas. Regardless of title each person is given a space to be fully heard. What one person sees as a clue may trigger an idea with another person. Without this communication skill the clue connection is missed.
• An escape room is designed to provide a blizzard of information, some useful and some not. Like the pile of email people get each work day. Team members able to successfully discard the useless clues and focus communication around the interesting clues are much more successful due to higher quality information.
• Each team member is fully present and listening to the conversations from the other members. There are no exceptions and no one is left out.
• At critical junctures in the event when the team is off track someone will clearly summarize the state of the clues and re-focus the team.
• We see teams that recognize their communications diversity and each member plays to their strengths. For example, some members are very detailed while others are more of the cheerleader. All types are needed and appreciated. Any team with all cheerleaders will have a hard time succeeding.

We hope this escape room cheat was useful but more importantly we hope you’ll apply it to your work context as well.