It's Time to Check Your Blindspots!

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Throughout 2020 we traveled along the path of command presence and asked the question, "Do you know who you are?" Our hopes were for you to get a clear picture of who you are and how you are seen by your people. This self-awareness journey should have revealed your strengths and weaknesses. One of those weaknesses may have been things you didn't see—your blind spots. 

Opening yourself up to appraisal by others can be an insightful and growing experience. 

Knowing Ourselves and Seeking Improvement

The starting point for leadership development is self-awareness. In many ways, our greatest challenge is to know ourselves. Self-awareness is an inward application of situation awareness. Fire leaders have an inner drive to analyze and know ourselves. We probe our blind spots and come away resolved to improve ourselves. We honestly appraise our own strengths and weaknesses.

Understanding our abilities and limitations, seeking feedback, learning from our mistakes, knowing where to improve, recognizing when to seek others with complementary strengths—these are all behaviors that enable us to become better leaders. (Leading in the Wildland Fire Service, pp. 59-60)

Wildland Fire Leadership Challenge: Strengthening Your Tools

• Read in "Increasing What is Known" in Leading in the Wildland Fire Service, p. 61.

Fire leaders seek and accept feedback to maintain accurate situation awareness about ourselves. We are willing to examine and probe blind spots, seeking feedback from others. Because blind spots can lead to problems, leaders accept and act on feedback as part of the responsibility to mitigate error.

Effective leaders also share information about themselves with others. Greater situation awareness about the leader builds trust among team members and enables them to help the leader compensate for weaknesses.

Seeking and accepting feedback and sharing information enables leaders to increase what is known among team members and contributes to the development of a strong team.

• Watch the following PwC video titled, "Blind spots: Challenge assumptions."

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A special shoutout for inspiring this blog goes to Nancy Taylor, Diversity Change Officer for the Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior.