I'm torn. There are so many ideas rolling around in my head that I'd like to share. Which to pick for this month?

The more I explore the concepts of Blind Spots, the more areas I discover that can benefit from those concepts. We've already covered the basics - my discovery of the concept for myself way back in 1980, and the slow growth of the idea. And we've seen one example of someone who didn't realize how much value was hiding in her blind spots.

If you've heard me speak about Blind Spots or read my writing on the subject, then you've heard me talk about turning your mirrors 90 degrees, as I did last month. Maybe you've given this some thought over the past month or two? And maybe you've started looking into your own Blind Spots and finding value there.

I've seen the light go on more than once, and am hoping that you're discovering areas that you've been taking for granted.

We're going for a new twist this month...

Reverse Blind Spots, or "I'm Fooling Me - Am I Fooling You Too?"

I was in a seminar the other day, and observing the person who's responsibility it was to plan, organize, arrange, and deliver the seminar. That person was clearly suffering from some stress. There were a lot of details to attend to, and a number of people with whom he had to coordinate, and the details didn't stop with the delivery of the seminar, but continued afterward for a while.

Have you ever organized an event? Did it seem overwhelming or easy?

Me, I'm a detail-oriented person, and organizing events of various sizes doesn't stress me out. In fact, I am once again the Logistics Chair for the American Heart Walk in Austin this year (short plug - click here to sponsor me). Because of my perspective on things, an event like this breaks down into pieces, and then I delegate the pieces. I have an outstanding team working with me again this year, many of them new to the Heart Walk. But because of my perspective and their cooperation and energy, it will all come together beautifully.

Now I'm not saying that the seminar I attended did not come together beautifully. In fact, while there might have been a hiccup or two, it was actually quite smooth.

But as I watched the organizer during the course of the event, I realized that I had been missing something in my consideration of Blind Spots.

Not that what I've said thus far has been wrong, but that it's been incomplete (and probably always will be, of course). I realized that there's an area that I'll call "Reverse Blind Spots" that I had not yet considered.

Reverse Blind Spots are those areas that we take for granted to be strengths, but may not be.

Ugh.

If you've never been in that situation, I envy you.

As I look back over the management parts of my career, of which there were many, I realize that I was operating on the assumption that if I'm a good manager/executive, I'm a good manager/executive in all situations. But that's just not true, at least for me. In fact, after being blind to it for years, one day I realized that my greatest strengths lie in the creation and growth periods of an organization's development, not in the production/sustaining periods.

Whoa!

Having worked at startup after startup, I found myself repeatedly being in a situation in which it was my job to define an organization or team, hire the people, grow that team to a highly effective state, and then run the team once it reached "production". In business startup, I refer to four phases of a company's growth as "garage", "real office", "pre-production", and "production". Each phase demands a certain perspective and style of the management. While I recognized the phases and their demands of other members of the executive and management teams, for a long time I failed to assess my own strengths and weaknesses as they applied to those phases.

So I just thought "I'm a good manager and leader, and I can do what I do well in any phase."

Wrong.

My strengths lie in the first two phases - the period in which there is generally little structure, a need for organization and definition, a demand for creative and energetic solutions, and the desire to build. Once past those two phases, however, the management skills and mental set demands change and mine don't fit nearly as well.

So here, for the last few months, I've been talking about Blind Spots - discovering value in the skills, knowledge, and experience that we take for granted.

This month, my thought is that sometimes we take for granted that we're good at something or able to do something. Perhaps no one has pointed out that we have gone beyond our level of competence or comfort, and that we need to either gain additional skills or levels of skill, or seek help.

"Help" doesn't mean therapy! It means that maybe it's okay to say "I can't do this alone" or "I don't have all the skills I need to do this" or even "Maybe I'm not suited to this job or project or task" and then acting on that.

The symptoms of Reverse Blind Spots are:

• People keep offering me help when I didn't think I needed it
• People keep asking me if I'm okay
• I feel stressed or uncomfortable about the situation I'm in, but can't pinpoint why
• There seem to be too many details for me to cope with

That's not necessarily a complete list, but just enough to stimulate your thinking. I don't know about you, but I know that just as I'm constantly finding Blind Spots, I'm also constantly finding Reverse Blind Spots. And each time I do, if I recognize it for what it is, I can do something about it.

I'm evolving daily.

Isn't life amazing?

Wishing you health, wealth, and happiness,

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Steven works with entrepreneurs, executives, and professionals who want to clarify their communications and concepts so that they can dramatically increase their business profitability.

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