BLIND SPOTS

“I have never trained a horse so dependent on the herd. She totally relies on the other horses to compensate for her blind side. By herself, it is slow going, but if I involve other horses, her confidence jumps.”  This was the observation of our horse trainer, Zeak, when he returned our young horse, Eilass, after four months of training. 

Our sweet buckskin filly lost her right eye when she was only four weeks old. We decided to take a risk and bring her on a challenging four-day pack trip to Colorado. As long as she was with the other horses, she did remarkably well, climbing narrow trails with sheer drop-offs to a summit over 13,000 feet high. However, if Eilass were ever by herself, she would get very nervous, constantly swinging her head around to try and see the danger on her blind side instead of focusing on steadily climbing the trail.

What a perfect analogy for my experience coaching over 100 executives in addressing their blind spots. Like our horse trainer, I am pretty good at helping my clients discover things they can’t see that are holding them back. Those clients who take a self-reliant, “I am going to fix this on my own” approach don’t do so well. However, those with the courage and humility to share their blind spots and solicit help from others (team members, spouses, or even their kids) achieve dramatic results, enabling them to climb to the high peaks of career success.  

Eilass can’t overcome her blind spot alone, and neither can we.