People are like cars. Every person has blind spots, and those blind spots cause problems if not properly monitored. Plus, those blind spots don’t magically vanish when you become a leader. There’s no mythical switch flipped when you get a promotion. Your blind spots are still there…and now they’re on full display for others to see. The first step in addressing your blind spots as a leader is knowing about them. Financial services leadership training covers a variety of blind spots – here are five to think about.
#1: Going it alone.
The English poet John Donne famously wrote about how “no man is an island.” But despite how common that expression now is, many leaders find themselves going it alone and trying to do everything. Maybe they don’t trust others to do tasks as well as they can. Or maybe it feels too vulnerable to let go of some duties.
Fast Leadership Clarity Tip: Find a blind spot buddy – someone you really trust. Ask them to help you delegate and grow in vulnerability.
#2: Avoiding difficult conversations.
This blind spot feels like keeping the peace. It’s really just preserving your own comfort via conflict avoidance. Softening tough messages or dodging negative information doesn’t solve a problem. The problem simply festers until it explodes. And when it does explode, the person will say “why didn’t I hear this before” or “why didn’t you tell me sooner.”
Fast Leadership Clarity Tip: Examine your past. Do you have a pattern of doing this? Realize that there’s a difference between being nice and being kind. The kind thing to do is have the tough conversation.
#3: Blaming others or circumstances.
Also known as playing the victim. Instead of taking responsibility and moving forward, there’s always an excuse. But once you’re a leader, the buck stops with you. And it’s up to you to find the way forward…not the escape route. As Simon Sinek says, “Great leaders don’t blame the tools they are given. Great leaders work to sharpen them.”
Fast Leadership Clarity Tip: Solicit feedback from others. Discover if you’re playing the blame game. Then, work on saying, “that’s on me.” Use financial services leadership training to grow your personal sacrifice muscle; let the face-saving muscle atrophy.
#4: Having an “I know” attitude.
If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. But if you have an “I know” attitude, you don’t believe that adage. You devalue other ideas and refuse to consider other ways of doing things. It’s your way or the highway.
Fast Leadership Clarity Tip: Surround yourself with diverse thinkers. Ask them for their ideas first and have discussions surrounding those ideas. Scale back how much you “drive the conversation” if you’re just forcing your will on the group.
#5: Conspiring against others.
This individual is a saboteur. They voice full support for projects in meetings but then gossip later about how initiatives will fail. They eye-roll, huff and want someone to fail. Playing politics like this is quite a common workplace blind spot: 61% of people report being scapegoated at work…but 71% refuse to admit they did it to someone else.
Fast Leadership Clarity Tip: Identify triggers. If your first thought is to perform these behaviors, discover what caused those impulses to appear. Then, practice open and honest disagreement. Talk through problems and align rather than sabotaging. Role play in your financial services leadership training so you’re ready for the real thing.
Uncover Your Blind Spots
You’ll find you have one (or more) of these blind spots. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. We have a few of these too. The important thing is to identify them and control the impulses.
Uncovering your blind spots is hard to do alone, and leadership skills are some of the hardest to teach. Book a consultation and let’s discuss how financial services leadership training will help transform you and your team into better leaders.
FAQS: FINANCIAL SERVICES LEADERSHIP TRAINING & BLIND SPOTS
What are the most common blind spots that hold financial services leaders back?
Five show up most frequently: going it alone instead of delegating, avoiding difficult conversations to preserve personal comfort, blaming others or circumstances instead of taking ownership, an “I know” attitude that dismisses other perspectives, and conspiring against others through workplace politics and sabotage. None of these disappear when someone gets promoted — they just become more visible to everyone else.
Why do leaders struggle to delegate, and how can they get better at it?
Leaders often resist delegation because they don’t fully trust others to do the work at the same standard, or because letting go feels vulnerable. The result is a leader who is overextended and a team that can’t grow. A practical starting point is identifying a trusted colleague — a “blind spot buddy” — who can provide honest feedback and help build the delegation habit over time.
What's the difference between avoiding conflict and keeping the peace?
Avoiding conflict feels like keeping the peace but is really just preserving personal comfort at the expense of the team. When leaders soften difficult messages or dodge hard conversations, problems don’t disappear — they fester and eventually explode. At that point, the affected person often asks why they weren’t told sooner. The distinction worth internalizing: being nice avoids the conversation; being kind has it.
How does a blame mentality undermine leadership effectiveness?
Leaders who habitually blame others or external circumstances — playing the victim — sidestep accountability and stall progress. As Simon Sinek puts it, great leaders don’t blame the tools they’re given; they work to sharpen them. Once someone is in a leadership role, the path forward is their responsibility to find. Soliciting honest feedback from others is a useful first step in recognizing whether blame has become a default pattern, and financial services leadership training can help build the accountability muscle needed to replace it.
How can financial services leadership training help leaders identify and address their blind spots?
Blind spots are, by definition, hard to see on your own — and leadership skills are among the hardest to develop without structured support. Training provides the frameworks, honest feedback loops, and practice scenarios (such as role-playing difficult conversations) that help leaders recognize their patterns and replace them with more effective behaviors. The goal isn’t to eliminate blind spots entirely but to identify them, understand their triggers, and develop the discipline to manage them before they damage teams and results.
