Blindspots

Just before Christmas I had the opportunity to visit with my high school best friend and her daughter. It had been a number of years since I had seen her and we seemed to be able to take up right where we left off. There are some relationships that are just like that.
 
She has been teaching yoga and pilates for many years and is also connected with Lululemon as one of their ambassadors. As part of the training that Lululemon provides, they send people to a program run by Landmark Education. I know that some people find their program controversial but my friend spoke very highly of the experience and the influence it had had on her personal relationships.
 
One of things that Landmark teaches is that the world of knowledge (about yourself in particular) can be divided into spheres: what you know (languages, skills, etc.), what you know you don't know (how to be a neurosurgeon (if you're not one)). However, there's a third realm that is more complex: those areas where you don't know that you don't know. This area concerns blind spots that you might have about your life, your relationships, your biases - anything in your life that you currently do not recognize in yourself.
 

In our Leadership & Training course at SFU, we have been exploring these areas of blindness as it pertains to our future roles as managers. We all bring biases, experiences, beliefs and opinions to work and for many of us, this is something that we don't recognize. We make assumptions about those with whom we work as we interpret what they say or do; seldom do we verify these assumptions. We react to circumstances without asking sufficient questions or acknowledging our responsibilities in the communication process.

Our learning this week has been to listen well, reflect, encourage, empathize and be slow to judge our colleagues or our employees. We each need to work to increase the amount of light shining toward those areas of our self where we don't know what we don't know. By acknowledging our own biases or blindspots, we can work to create positive working relationships as we grow into management positions.