In team sports like football, everyone knows who gets coached… the players. They’re the ones making the real-time decisions, handling pressure, reading the field, and adapting play after play.
Interestingly though, a Manager can get a red card too.
When you are on the side line, in your technical area, needing to trust your team to deliver what they have been trained and coached, the pressure can get a bit much and that’s when things get really interesting. As our natural instinctive traits start to show up and all our conscious controls can go right out the window.
Because even the best leaders have blindspots. Those unseen habits, assumptions, and reactions that quietly shape how their teams see them and perform.
What are leadership blindspots?
A leadership blindspot is something you don’t know you don’t know.
It’s the gap between how you think you show up and how others actually experience you (not just perceive you).
And they’re only a sign of weakness if they remain unknown and to what extent they play out for you.
You could think “well that’s a them problem”, and you may be right, they may not accept, enjoy or be able to emotionally control themselves in your authentic environment. But if they are pretty good at their work for you, it could be costly not to flex somewhat to the styles that may be required for them to thrive in your environment.
So, let’s be more human and start to become more self-aware of what these might be.
The most common blindspots in leaders
- Communication Gaps: Leaders often believe they’re being clear, but teams may hear something entirely different. Intent and impact rarely match without conscious alignment.
- Emotional Leakage: Stress and pace can make leaders unaware of how their emotions ripple through the team. Emotional self-awareness isn’t soft, it’s strategic.
- Overcontrol in Disguise: When pressure rises, many leaders tighten their grip. Micromanagement can come from care but ends up killing trust and autonomy.
- Feedback Vacuums: The higher you go, the less honest feedback you receive. Without intentional systems, leaders lose touch with ground truth.
- Success Stagnation: What worked before becomes the default playbook. The problem? It limits innovation and agility when the game changes.
Why a focus on blindspots matters
Blindspots don’t stay personal, they become cultural.
They shape how people behave, communicate, and make decisions.
When a leader’s stress becomes contagious, or their lack of clarity breeds confusion, performance and morale both take the hit.
You can’t fix what you can’t see.
And that’s where coaching steps in.
How coaching helps leaders see more clearly
- Objective Perspective: A coach isn’t caught in the politics or hierarchy. They see what others can’t say and reflect it back with precision.
- Feedback Design: Coaching helps leaders build 360° or upward feedback loops that bring hidden truths to light safely.
- Self-Awareness Development: Through structured reflection and challenge, coaching helps leaders spot emotional patterns, triggers, and biases that drive decisions.
- Behavioural Experimentation: Coaching turns awareness into action, from how you delegate to how you listen, lead and communicate.
- Sustained Change: Real transformation happens when insight becomes habit. Coaching provides accountability to make that stick and become embodied as your way of being.
The Brilliant Takeaway
Leaders who see themselves, lead brilliantly.
The best leaders play the long game, they stay coachable. They model growth, create space for others to learn, and build teams that thrive on trust and agility.
Because leadership, like sport, is played in real time.
And the best players never stop learning how to see the field differently.
At GEN-b, we help emerging and established leaders develop the awareness, adaptability, and emotional intelligence to lead with purpose and precision… because what you can’t see often determines what you can achieve.
If you’d like to explore how leadership and workplace coaching could generate brilliance in your business, we’d be glad to start that conversation.
