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Blind Spot

Every leader has a blind spot… and a cheer section.

Leadership is a strange, lonely, exhilarating place. On one side, you have your cheer section the people who remind you are doing something right. They clap for your wins, nod at your ideas, and sometimes, unintentionally, make you believe you can do no wrong. They are your energy, your morale boosters, the ones who help you survive long meetings and impossible deadlines.

But on the other side lies your blind spot. That invisible space where your mistakes, assumptions, or missteps grow unnoticed. Your blind spot is where feedback hesitates, where the hard truth never makes it past the hallway, and where small cracks quietly turn into full blown issues.

Leaders need both extremes. Loyal support keeps you moving, confident, and motivated. Honest feedback keeps you grounded, self aware, and growing. The problem is that as you climb higher, the line between the two gets blurry. The louder the cheer section, the easier it becomes to mistake applause for accuracy. You might start believing everything is fine until reality proves otherwise.

Every successful leader you admire has a story where they didn’t see something coming. Maybe it was a team dynamic they misread, a project risk they underestimated, or a conversation they avoided. These blind spots aren’t failures they are inevitable. What separates effective leaders from cautionary tales is how they handle them.

Honest feedback isn’t comfortable. It can feel like criticism, like someone questioning your judgment or even your loyalty. But feedback isn’t a threat, it’s a lifeline. The right people will tell you what’s hard to hear because they care about the results, the team, and your growth. Your job as a leader is not to silence those voices it’s to create a space where honesty can be shared without fear of reprisal.

When someone in your cheer section is also your truth teller, you have basically found the unicorn of professional relationships.  A cheer section truth teller is rare. Most people lean heavily toward one role or the other. Some will hype you endlessly but wont risk bruising your ego.  Others will tell you the hard truths but may not be great at offering encouragement after they drop backlash.

A cheer section truth teller does both:
They clap for your wins but don’t let applause distract you from what needs work.

They believe in you fiercely which is exactly why they will risk an awkward conversation to help you grow.
They frame honesty as support, not sabotage so you walk away motivated, not deflated.

When you have someone like that, three things happen
Your blind spots shrink. They will catch things before they spiral, because they are close enough to see them and care enough to tell you.
Your confidence becomes healthier. You don’t just feel good because people are cheering you feel good because you know your decisions are grounded in reality.
Your relationship deepens. Trust skyrockets when someone proves they’ll both celebrate you and challenge you.

Learn to balance the applause and the awareness.

A healthy leader doesn’t choose between encouragement and critique, they build a culture where both thrive.

Here is how I think you do it.

Ask for feedback intentionally. Don’t wait for a crisis. Ask your team, peers, and mentors to highlight blind spots before they become problems.

Normalize the hard conversation. Let people know that honesty is valued over comfort.

Separate applause from accuracy. Enjoy the cheers but check the facts.

Reflect regularly. Step outside yourself to assess decisions and identify patterns you might miss in the moment.

The truth is, you will always have blind spots. Your cheer section will always be there. The difference is what you do with both. The leader who survives and thrives isn’t the one with the loudest cheer section or the thickest ego. It’s the one who recognizes their blind spots, seeks the hard truths, and moves forward with clarity, courage, and balance.

Leadership isn’t about eliminating blind spots. It’s about seeing them, listening, and acting anyway especially when your loudest cheerleader is also your bravest truth teller.

ღ Chi

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