Eager for answers? Jump straight to the Q&A.
Do leaders see themselves as others see them? Probably not as often as they think.
And for coaches, that creates a challenge. If you rely on conversations with your coachee to understand what their developmental needs are, you could be missing important parts of the picture. Fortunately, there are strategies to help leaders see their blind spots – making your coaching more relevant, and helping them achieve the self-awareness that’s critical for success.
In the webinar Leadership Blind Spots: How to Identify and Address them Through Coaching, the MRG experts revealed new research findings about blind spots, and practical tactics for coaching to close awareness gaps.
Read on for highlights and key findings from the webinar, or watch the full webinar on-demand now. And be sure to scroll to the end of this post for answers to attendee questions.
Finding Blind Spots: How to See What a Leader Can’t
To research patterns in blind spots – and inform our coaching – we undertook a global study of nearly 40,000 leaders who took the LEA 360™, a behavioral assessment that collects data from leaders and their observers (bosses, peers, and direct reports).
The LEA 360™ questionnaire collects data that is descriptive, not evaluative. This neutrality is important for collecting feedback that is based in action, not effectiveness – making it uniquely malleable and informative for practical development.
For this study, we defined a “blind spot” as a behavior where the difference between Self scores and Observer scores (averaged) was greater than 30 points (on a 100-point scale) – in other words, a noteworthy difference is present between how leaders rated themselves, and how their observers rated them.
A New Study on Blind Spots: 5 Fascinating Findings
1. Blind spots are common.
The study revealed that leaders have an average of 7.6 blind spots – more than 1/3 of the 22 leadership behaviors measured.
2. There are 3 behaviors leaders are most likely to overestimate.
Leaders are more likely to overestimate how often they make decisions independently (SELF), seize opportunities and adapt (TACTICAL), and delegate to others (DELEGATION).
3. There are 2 behaviors leaders are most likely underestimate.
Leaders are more likely to underestimate how thoroughly they communicate (COMMUNICATION), and how frequently they ensure everyone is meeting commitments (CONTROL).
4. There are 5 behaviors where leaders and their observers are most likely to align.
Leaders are more likely to be aligned on some of the behaviors associated with interpersonal relationships: PERSUASIVE, OUTGOING, EXCITEMENT, RESTRAINT and EMPATHY.
5. Blind spots are universal.
The study explored whether there were noteworthy differences when splitting the data – did some demographics more blind spots than others? The short answer is no. The average number of blind spots was consistent across management level, region, gender, industry, work location (remote, in-person, or hybrid), and generation.
Addressing Blind Spots: Coaching to Close Awareness Gaps
Not only are blind spots common – they’re also to be expected. After all, an individual’s self score includes not just what they’re doing publicly, but all of their internal thoughts as well. An observer score can only account for what is external during the limited time a leader is spending with their colleagues.
So addressing blind spots requires us to contextualize scores, find those that are truly relevant and important, and then make our developmental plans accordingly.
At MRG, we ground this work in the LEA 360™ assessment, using the results as a data-driven foundation for coaching and creating a developmental plan.
Here are three things to keep in mind when coaching to address blind spots:
1. Maintain Perspective
It’s easy for a coachee to be reactive when they find that others don’t see them as they see themselves. As a coach, you can lay the foundation for constructive conversation by putting these results into perspective. Remind your coachee how common blind spots are, and that they’re present in every leader. Reinforce that these gaps in awareness are opportunities, not accusations.
Some findings may cut deep. Give your coachee space to explore those feelings, but don’t dwell, catastrophize, or let the conversation give way to justification for the findings.
2. Rely on the Fundamentals
When using the LEA, reiterate an essential aspect of the LEA assessment: low scores aren’t bad, high scores aren’t good. That means it’s descriptive, not evaluative – these scores aren’t indicating effectiveness (or ineffectiveness!) at anything.
From there, take a simple, three-phased approach to the coaching work:
INTERPRETATION: Help your participant understand what their scores mean.
CONTEXT: Together, talk through what their overall goals are, how some of their data may relate to those goals, and establish a developmental path based on that broader context.
ACTION PLAN: Establish specific behavioral changes your coachee can focus on to help achieve their developmental goals – and incorporate accountability into the plan.
3. Leverage resources and input to take meaningful action.
Recognize that data insights are a useful starting point, but it’s important to supplement them with qualitative feedback. Coachees should ask questions and get context for the scores they received. To turn what they’ve learned into practical action, leverage resources from the assessment provider (MRG provides resources like Action Steps and Learning Libraries to help individuals target specific behaviors for development). Use the context and resources to identify key action items that are highly specific, and create structure (tasks, deadlines) to make them happen. Often very small behavior shifts can result in big wins.
Curious about what this process might look like in action? During the webinar, Drew walked through a case study of coaching a rising leader struggling with two common blind spots. Watch the case study here to see how these insights can be applied.
The bottom line: blind spots are extremely common. And while we’re never going to see ourselves exactly as others see us, developing more self-awareness can lead to stronger working relationships and fewer misunderstandings.
You can watch the full webinar on-demand and dive into more related resources here.
Read on for answers from the experts to questions that arose during the webinar. (Has this research raised questions for you? Ask us!)
Q&A with the Experts
Q: Were there any interesting findings if you look at blind spots by observer group, leader gender, or leader generation?
A: Great question! When we split the data by observer group, we found that leaders have about 1 more blind spot with bosses than with peers or direct reports. That is, they were a little less aligned with their bosses when it came to perceptions of their own behaviors.
There were no gender or generational differences in number of blind spots. This means that they are very common even across these more salient demographic factors. It highlights the importance of using a good 360 instrument to help individuals gain self-awareness in the early stages of any leadership developmental program.
Q: What does it mean when scores are aligned – i.e., when there is no blind spot. Is that inherently good?
Video answer from Drew:
Q: Did you find any large perception gaps with the LEA behavior of Strategic?
A: Strategic is one of the Key Three behaviors for leadership effectiveness. Along with Management Focus and Communication, it tends to show up frequently as a predictor of overall leadership effectiveness across regions, functions and industries.
We found that differences between Self and Observer perceptions of Strategic were rather small when looking at aggregate data for this research. However, individual leaders will have different perception gap patterns. When working with a leader who has a blind spot with Strategic, we recommend addressing it because of the relationship between the behavior and leadership effectiveness. As Drew mentioned during the webinar, part of that work might involve a shift to greater visibility and ensuring the leader isn’t doing their best strategic thinking when they’re alone – shifting from being a strategic person to being a strategic leader.
Q: I really like the idea of calculating average observer scores. Wondering why you don’t typically calculate those on the LEA 360? That would be super helpful to have that data.
A: We appreciate the feedback and will take that into account as we update the reports. At this time, that option is available as custom research – you can contact our Client Services team to learn more.
