How many different vehicles have you driven?  Lots I’m sure.  We all know that with every vehicle there are blind spots – those parts of the vehicle that impede your vision.  We know that before we change lanes, or turn, or park, or do anything other than simply stand still, we need to look from a number of perspectives to ensure we see beyond our blind spot and don’t have an accident.

People are like cars in that sense: we all have blind spots.  There are things about us and about many, many areas of life that we don’t see as clearly as other people may see.  In order to see beyond our own blind spots we need input from others.

I had a profound lesson in that this week.

I recently finished the first draft of my first book.  It is awesome.  It’s a world changer.  It’s definitely a best seller.  At least, that’s how I perceived it in my own mind.  However, knowing that I have a tendency to fall in love with my own ideas I decided to send the draft to some friends and family to give me feedback.  I was certainly hoping to hear glowing feedback, but really wanted to hear what I could do to make it better.

Thankfully I have friends and family who care enough to tell me the truth. What they told me was really tough to hear.   Basically as it stands, my book is a fail.  I missed it.  I did not accomplish what I wanted to accomplish.  I won’t go into the details of the book’s content or of the feedback, but needless to say, I have lots of work to do to get this book where I want it to be.

I learned a valuable lesson from this experience.  Seeing beyond our own blind spots requires two critical traits – vulnerability and humility.

First of all we need to be vulnerable and offer what we have created to others for input.  That could be a book, an article, a song, a poem, a strategic plan, a marketing campaign, an ad, a speech – anything that we have created.  That is an intimidating process; it can be difficult not to take the feedback personally.  Some people may be gracious in their comments, other could be…not so gracious.  There is definitely a significant element of vulnerability involved, because you can get rejected, discouraged, and hurt.

Secondly, we must then choose humility and learn from others.  Humility is recognising that we don’t have all the answers.  There is more that we don’t know than we know.  We must choose to be teachable.  We must choose not to take the feedback personally and get offended or angry.  We must choose to believe that others can see beyond our blind spots to things we need to see in order to grow. If I do that with my book, I can work through the feedback and learn from others to ultimately make my book something people will want to read.

In our lives and in our leadership we must choose vulnerability and humility in order to see beyond our blind spots.  It we do not choose to do this we will go through life with limited visibility and not have the impact that we could have, that we truly want to have.  In addition, we can cause a lot of “accidents”, because we are not sensitive to or aware of the impact we have on others.

You have a great deal to offer this world, which will only increase as you choose vulnerability and humility to learn from others and see beyond your blind spots.  The people in your life and this world of ours need what you have to offer.  What you have to give will become better and better as you vulnerably offer what you have, then humbly receive input from others to make what you are offering more than it ever could have been otherwise.

See beyond your blinds spots by choosing vulnerability and humility.  We need what you have to offer.