How to uncover your blind spots

What’s a ‘blind spot’ you might ask? It’s a good question – in this case it refers to strengths (or perhaps weaknesses) that you don’t realise you possess!

Seeking feedback from trusted sources such as work colleagues, managers (past and present), sporting team mates or coaches, or even an honest friend or family member, can be incredibly valuable. You see, reviewing and improving your performance is vital for career development, and peer assessments typically lead to an increase in ongoing motivation to continually improve.

It can be common for us to deliver quite a critical perspective of ourselves and our competencies (strengths) in self-assessments.

Peer assessments can help balance this view for us. Similarly, many of us have ‘blind spots’ or unknown opportunities for improvement that may only become evident through a peer assessment. The ImproveMe StrengthsPlus Assessment allows you to ask up to five people to provide their assessment of you, to help uncover such blind spots.

Differing results between how you rate yourself and how a peer rates you for some questions in the StrengthsPlus Assessment creates an excellent opportunity for you to sit down and discuss the outcomes with your peer. Depending on the level of variation in your answers this can be quite a confronting discussion for both you and the peer! However if it’s approached in an open, honest, positive and constructive manner, based around a philosophy of self improvement, it can be an incredibly valuable conversation to have.

So here’s how to approach it.

Ask why they rated you as they did for the questions highlighted on the comparison email you received and listen carefully to their answer. You may find they were thinking of different examples than you were when they rated you, in which case you can ask why those examples were the ones that sprung to mind for them.

You might be able to uncover ‘blind spots’ that you have (both positive and negative) and discover important things about your skills and talents that you were not aware of before.

You’ll be amazed at what you could learn. 

After your discussion with your peer, consider the new perspectives you have been given and how you can use that information as you embark on a path of self improvement.

Don’t forget to reflect back on the feedback from time to time or check in with your peer to see how their opinions may have developed or changed.