Hey, guys, and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Sharina, I'm your host, I'm your executive coach, culture transformation strategist advisor and just someone who is really, really passionate about the process of change, of getting better, building habits, routines, rituals, changing our environment, learning how to adjust our motivations and what we pay attention to in order to optimize our life experience, to express more of ourselves in this world and create the most fulfilling life experience for ourselves and people around us. That's what we are all about here and today, guys, we are starting our conversation about blind spotting. I recorded a couple of days ago, an interview with Martin Dubin. He is the author of the book Blind Spotting how to see what's holding you back as a leader and if you are interested in expressing yourself more, unlocking more of your potential and growing in this life, this is the book not to miss on blindspotting the reason how I got to read this book and invite Martin to ChangeWired podcast.
As my work involves working with leaders and entrepreneurs and a lot of people into growth and development and doing their best. A lot of my work is around our areas of improvement and one of the first thing, one of the advantage of having a coach is having a mirror that reflects back to you what you might not see. You know, it's kind of like a mirror. When you look in the mirror, you might not have noticed that there was something in your teeth or on your face or on your clothing, especially in certain places which are not that available to your eyesight, for maybe on your back and you look at the mirror and you see what's wrong and you correct it and then you continue with your day of feeling and looking better. So coaching is the same, but for your mindset, for your psychology, for your routines and behaviors and automatic habits that you might not notice anymore because they became so you that you just don't notice them. They are you. But then you experience certain effects in life, in work, usually negative effects, that you don't like, that you would like to change, and you get certain results not the ones that you like and they're consistently not what you like. And you start asking yourself why is that that I'm getting this not what I want? What in my behavior and my psychology, in my mindset and my decision-making contributes to that? And compared to what you can see in the mirror, what's in your head? It's very hard to see and very often, again, what you think translates into automatic behaviors that you don't even notice until you have an effect. But then it's also challenging and hard at times to figure out okay, where is it actually coming from? What thinking process, decision-making is underneath this? What character traits, what motivations, what things about my identity? What are the things about my character traits, my emotional regulation, that contributes to that behavior and to that result? It's very hard to see unless you ask someone else to pay attention to that and help you to see. And that's where coaching comes into play.
But also this book that Martin Dubin wrote, blindspotting how to see things that hold you back as a leader, things that you don't see. That's why they're blind spots, because you're blind to them. It gives you an amazing structure at taxonomy and that's what Martin tried to do with this book. It gives you these areas, sort of spotlight on the areas of you, from your identity, to your motives, to your behavior, to your emotions, to your character traits. It gives you, it puts spotlight on those things and through stories which are so plenty and so relatable, martin helps you to see your blind spots and how you can recognize them and how they can look in real life and in your work. And then also he suggests exercises to first become more aware of those blind spots in these different areas of you, and then also the book proposes action to take to address those blind spots so they don't stop your journey forward, your personal growth, your professional growth, don't stop your journey forward, your personal growth, your professional growth, your leadership in workplace and in personal life. So, blind spotting we're going to have Martin on our podcast very soon. I'm still thinking about the dates of the release, but today I want to talk to you about my blind spots.
Speaker 1Not so long ago I took Clifton Strengths Assessment. They have this new assessment, 34. And I think what is new about that because I compared that to old ones is that now your strengths also come with blind spots that are in the assessment. So you have your five most prominent strengths and then each of them comes with a blind spot that you need to be aware of. So this time in my life, in my personal life, I'm all about doubling down on my strengths but then also knowing my weaknesses, my blind spots, not to correct them and to change myself, but to be aware of them and put systems in place so they don't trip me and I can move forward towards my goals, not being stopped but by what I can't even see. And I'm going to give you examples right now, and also the tools that I use and the systems that I created, and also how I use ChatGPT to help me create better work plan, better study plan, better strategic plan for anything. I do with this knowledge that I have my strengths and I have my blind spots and in certain situations I might act not in my best interest, not in the way that contributes to the things that I want.
Speaker 1Let's first talk to my five strengths of Clifton assessment. There are many different assessments, but Clifton strengths is one of the best considered by the field of personal improvement and psychology. So I usually recommend all of my clients to take it just to get curious. Like what are you strong at? What can you double down on, especially later in your career and in your life? How can you create even more fulfillment now that you don't really care about all the bullshit? And then, what are the weaknesses that have been stopping you till this point? And maybe you can work around them better so you move even faster now with this increased self-knowledge. So let's jump into my strengths assessment. We're going to go through five strengths of mine and the blind spots and how I asked a GPT to help me address them, and what I'm doing now differently with this knowledge in place.
Speaker 1So my number one strength is a learner. You have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve the process of learning, rather than outcome excites you. Why your learner is unique, well, that's not that important. But what is important is watch out for blind spots part. It's in the assessment. At the end of each strength you have these blind spots. So for learner, you place a high value on learning and studying and you may tend to impose this value on others. And boy guys, I can tell you I am imposing it on others. I'm like well, have you read this book? Have you listened to this podcast? Why not? I'm just going to do that, forgetting that learning isn't everyone's number one priority on their to-do list. And so that can be off-putting. And people who know me know that. Like, oh, when will Angela shut up about her learnings, books and all the courses and stuff, right, so that can undermine your relationships unless you know of that. And like, ah, you know, I read this book, etc. So not being so imposing on people with that. Once you understand, that's how you act.
Speaker 1The second point in my blind spots you love the process of learning so much that the outcome might not matter to you. Be careful not to let the process of knowledge acquisition get in the way of results and productivity. And boy oh boy, that is I'm guilty of as well. I learn, learn and learn, and my answer to every problem is to learn more. Where I would actually need more practice, not more learning, like, for example, when I prepare for a talk or a class, I tend to like, oh, let me know this, learn this thing and that thing and that thing, and I don't put enough attention, not enough, not as much as I could have into practice of delivery. And delivery is like the key part, and that's what actually didn't allow me to grow as much as a speaker, as a facilitator, because I focus so much on this knowledge and give it every bit of it to people that, first of all, I almost suffocate people with this knowledge and, second of all, my delivery really could use some improvement.
So that's how your strengths, but don't forget that learning is an amazing strength. It allows you to figure stuff out and also, combined with the processing speed of my brain that I know is very hard high, it allows you to absorb so much more material and to create these beautiful systems and solutions. It allows you to do so much and you're such a great problem solver when learning is your superpower. But also it has these downsides, where you start seeing learning is the only answer and even start imposing it on other people. Right Now you can see that it's not just strengths. They say. In this era of AI and technology and speeding up of things, people who will fail are people who cannot unlearn, relearn and learn more. Well, that is my superpower learning. But if you don't do anything with that learning, guess what? You're not gonna get much results. If knowledge was the answer, as the saying goes, we'd all be billionaires with six-pack abs. So your strengths comes with blind spots and when you're aware of that, like I am aware right now, you can, for example, ask ChatGPT to adjust your interactions so you also focus on doing and testing, not just learning.
Speaker 1So what I did? I went to chat GPT and I sent in this prompt. Here is my Clifton Strengths report. I'd like you to look at my top strengths and the blind spots that come with them and always take these into consideration when giving me advice on how to proceed with certain strategies in work and life and what to watch out for. Also, based on my unique approach, what we've worked on and what I'm trying to do, can you suggest a plan to study and learn to ultimately create more positive impact in the world and lives of others and grow my business and career and again, I started this prompt with this I'd like you to look at my top strengths and the blind spots that come with them and always take this into consideration when giving me advice on how to proceed with certain strategies in working life and what to watch out for.
Speaker 1And Chachapiti did just that. It created a learning plan based on 30% of learning and 70% in doing, and that's exactly what I need at this point of self-development and growth. So how it can look like when I learn a new framework for behavior change, for example, whether that's a behavior driver model or a mind space or a combi model, or a Mindspace or a Combi model. When I learned something, chatgpt prompts me to then create something certain solutions, certain apps, certain post on social media, tools and spreadsheets, something to test with leaders, with my audience, in my workshops, and then it asks me to share and then give me the prompts to reach out to people and then test it out and see how it lands. And so, after each bout of learning, it proposes to create these different tools to test, which I sometimes unwillingly but do. And let me tell you, it's been quite a rewarding journey to see that you don't just know thing, you actually know how to solve problems in real world and help people with it. So that's just strengths number one.
Strengths number two, for example, is strategic, and strategic is all about. Well, let me read you. You create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, you can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues. So, again, combined with learning, it's like a superpower. Basically, I absorb all this information and somehow everything connects in my brain and whenever I see a problem, I'm like, oh, if you connect these 10 pieces of knowledge, you have a perfect solution. And because I constantly upload so much stuff in my head that the combinations of these solutions are just incredible I mean, in a sense, that they connect stuff from mentioned Greek philosophy with AI technology and some stuff from Andrew Huberman I'm like, yeah, this is how it works. And then I test it out in different workshops when I work with clients and they actually work, because they're based on research, on work on really great scientists and different research institutions, anyhow. So that is my superpower, right, I always have a solution, and quite good solution.
Speaker 1But when working with others and watch out for blind spots part, sometimes they may misinterpret your strong strategic talents as criticism, and guys, they definitely do, and that's why sometimes people don't tell me things they're like well, angela is going to propose a ton of other stuff and my stuff is not going to look as good, not because it is not that good, but because she's going to have like 10 other ideas. And boy, oh boy, we are all in love with our ideas, right? So the report says be mindful of what is already working well and what others have accomplished. And here you can see how that again can undermine your leadership and your relationships If you're always coming up with new stuff and you don't listen to what works and what other people propose again, because you are so in your own hat.
Speaker 1So the second part about blind spots, about strategic strengths because you evaluate patterns and pathways so quickly, others might find it difficult to follow, understand your thought process, be aware that sometimes you might have to backtrack to explain how you got to where you are. And that is also how I get a lot of notes on the pitches of different programs and workshops, because I connect things so fast that for me it looks like, well, that is common sense. Why don't you see it? And I forget to give people more background into my thinking and how I came to these conclusions. And then for people it looks like a bunch of gibberish that just came together out of the blue completely randomly, something not to listen to, but just a lot of confusion. And so how I now approach working with that is I specifically pay attention to explaining my logic, how I came to this conclusion, what data is based on where I'm coming from. I say, because of this, this and this and this and that I think that, and so now people can track my train of thought and then now they see the logic and now they're so much more likely to agree.
Speaker 1But not only that, also holding myself back. If people are not asking for my opinion, don't give it to them. Sometimes people like all of us we just say things because we want to be heard, not to be offered 10 different options or variations on that, sometimes completely disregarding what the person just said. And again, I ask also ChatGPT obviously to use that, and so whenever now it proposes certain things, it also helps me to explain the logic behind that offer. And also we decided to work on learning how to visually better present my ideas, using different tools for creating presentations or mapping different dependencies, but basically making my thought process, not just spell it out or speak it out, but also make it visual so people really start to understand where those different pieces come from. And just hold back your advice from time to time, because there are things that are already working without you just fine, and also people might have better ideas than you do, so don't just fall in love with all the stuff in your head. So that's another one.
Let me do one more and I want you to listen to this one as well on my example, because A you can recognize yourself in that and it has implications also more, I think, than any other of the strengths and blind spots in my day-to-day life. And also I'm gonna share with you simple systems, guardrails that I use for myself to avoid blind spot in this area. So, activator, my third most strong strength you can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. You want to do things now rather than simply talk about them and yes, guys, I start acting before you finish your thought. Yeah, let's do that. Let's do this right now. Let's reach out to this person. Let's start this podcast, let's start this community.
Speaker 1If you think about buying something, let's buy it. Let's figure out a plan right and let's move into action. If you want to go hike a mountain, let's go right. Let's figure out a plan right and let's move into action. If you want to go hike a mountain, let's go right now. If you want to go hike Everest, let's make a plan, let's make it happen right. So that's kind of my default. So studying things has never been my problem, or overthinking for that matter and that is where you can start seeing some negative effects of the same drive.
Speaker 1So watch out for blind spots. Sometimes you might charge ahead and act without a solid plan. Before making a major decision, think about challenging yourself to consider alternatives and weigh options first. So I'm a quick decision maker and quick acting person. So how can it manifest and how can it become something negative? Well, if you decide to I don't know move to another country and you decide to buy tickets that same moment, and then you wake up and you're like, oh my God, what did I just do? Maybe considering it for a few bits more or sleeping on, it is a good idea. And that's exactly, guys, what I now have for myself.
Speaker 1Whenever I make any decision which is not urgent or there is no, like you know, you have to do this now, like I don't know emergency and you need to go to hospital. Yes, you need to go now, but outside of those urgent things, like truly urgent things, you need to go now, but outside of those urgent things, like truly urgent things, I sleep on it at least 24 hours. For purchases, I again, unless there is some real emergency. I have a rule I do purchases outside of, like groceries and stuff, only on Saturday. Like if I want a bunch of books Saturday, if I want to buy some gadget or some biohacking thing or some supplement a thing, till Saturday, if I want to make a decision on any of those extra stuff that sounds good in practice and like, ooh, I want it. I'm like, yeah, put it on your wishlist on Saturday, and on Saturday, we're going to sit down somewhere in the afternoon with a cup of tea and make all of these decisions and see if any of that is relevant and oh my God how much money I probably saved and headaches, just stuff I don't use. It's like those books that you keep buying, buying and buying and not even reading them. So that saves me from that. That's one of the systems that I have.
Speaker 1And then the second thing is just not saying yes without thinking so when somebody proposes to me let's meet up, let's find some time to talk about X, I'm like, yeah, that sounds amazing, I'm going to get back to you in two days. I used to do 24 hours, now I do 48, or sometimes even by the end of the week, but no less than 24 hours. I'm like, yes, I'm going to get back to you on that In a conversation, especially because when it's a message or something on email, what I do is I snooze it and so it comes into my inbox in a day, in two and three days. But if it's in a conversation in real time, I'm like, yeah, that sounds great, but let me check with my calendar and that's exactly what I'm going to do. That and making decision and the decision that I'm going to make. I'm going to consult my priorities that are defined in advance, and I'm going to ask myself about not just this decision but similar ones. Okay, is this aligned with any of my priorities, what I'm trying to do in my personal and my professional life? And if it's not aligned with anything, then why? And if I can't find any good reason that sits well with me, I'm like then no, and I don't just make this decision once. I make it okay, from now on, until further notice, this is the answer we're going to give. So that's how I start using my strengths, with their blind spots, to help me navigate my life a lot more effectively.
Speaker 1Again, for me, overthinking is not a problem. For me, thinking too fast and acting on it too fast is and again, it's a superpower. It allows me to test out so many things before people even start thinking about them or finish their thought. But at the same time, sometimes I don't make decision thinking well enough through things, especially long-term, especially for decisions that can affect your life for the next week, months and years ahead. You really want to think through, you want to have some decision-making models run pre-mortem, how you can fail. What are the things you can put in place to not fail? And also check in with your long-term priorities. Would you do it today if you know? Let's say, you agree to speak at some event in a couple of months? Would you do it if it was today? And if not, then what makes you think that it's going to be a better option in two months? So things like that applying to my decision-making process, because I know that I'm a quick decision-maker and actor and so I need to put systems in place to make sure that I don't create negative consequences for myself as I'm making those decisions.
Speaker 1So the takeaway of today's podcast guys, a get to know your strengths, because your strengths is what will allow you to actually move towards the desired outcome much faster. It's kind of like having a super vehicle or some cape that a superman would have. It will allow you to glide towards your goals where a lot of people feel like they're barely moving. So that's one thing, but the second thing each one of your strengths comes with its opposite side, with its dark side, or sometimes it's called shadow side, or, like in a case of blind spotting book, it's called your blind spot and you might think well, that is such a great thing to be strategic and ideating and futuristic and learning super fast yes, and it can also backfire in different ways, and so the Clifton Strengths just now has this part also, which allows you to think about those common blind spots better.
Speaker 1And then also AskChat, gpt or Claude or whatever you use to help you design plans and make decisions, taking this into consideration, your tendency to not see or pay attention to certain things. And then in life also, you can create those rules, those guardrails, those what in science they call heuristics, so you don't just reap the good side of your strengths but you're also not slowed down or don't have negative side effects, so to speak, of your strengths. Like for me, again, being a quick decision maker is amazing and starting things is amazing, until you start things that you regret later, and there is always going to be a bunch of things that you're going to regret if you just make all decisions super fast. So the practical part of this is okay. If you have some strengths assessment, now you can put that into ChatGPT, into Cloud or whatever, and ask what are based on. This assessment can be my blind spots. Can you maybe create a picture of me what it can look in life and work. And then you read those stories, ask to write to the stories, because we humans relate to stories a lot better. So ask Chadi B T O'Clo to write you those stories or scenarios and then see if you see themselves in it and blindspotting, how to see what's holding you back as a leader.
Speaker 1This book again Marching Dubin is going to be on our podcast talking through the whole structure, but the book is already available so you can get it, listen to it, read it and start applying that, but anyhow. So put any of your assessments into ChatGPT or Cloud and start asking about your blind spots, start asking to write scenarios, start asking your AI agents to help you to make better decisions and choices based on, yes, your strengths, what your superpowers are that will allow you to glide through stuff, but then also to avoid your blind spots. So I don't know a lot of bricks don't fall on your keep. That allows you to fly and you can just keep gliding.
I hope this podcast episode was very useful and it helped you to think in a different way about your strengths and about your blind spots, and also hope it was practical as well, allowing you to not just understand things better or perhaps start thinking about your strengths and blind spots better, but also to put it into practice. And with all the AI superpower, we are in the best position better position than any previous generations to put it into actual plans, decision-making and automations in our lives. So, again, we don't just get the benefits of strengths and struggle less where we don't have to, but also so we are not stopped by, not slowed down by, our own blind spots and weaknesses. And you know weaknesses, guys. Weaknesses usually is something you can see Blind spots the worst thing about blind spots is that you're blind to them and very often you can't Blind spots.
Speaker 1The worst thing about blind spots is that you're blind to them and very often you can't even see them.
Speaker 1Like for me, I didn't realize that actually all this ideation and strategic might be so off-putting to people and so confusing and how it actually made a lot of my ideas fail right.
Speaker 1So blind spots are blind because you're blind to them, and that's the worst part and that's why using someone more objective, like AI agent, or reading a book and just really reflecting is this also true for me or having a coach like a mirror, that's where these tools are useful and start using them to have a more enjoyable life experience more enjoyable, more fulfilling and more successful. On that note, guys, please do share review. Maybe create a mini club with your spouses, your friends, your partners, your kids, your parents, listen to this podcast together and then create a session perhaps where you all start thinking, help each other, think about your blind spots, things that can be stopping you in life, so reflect it off each other and talk about that and then build systems so again you can move through life in a more fulfilling, easier, more rewarding way all together. So thank you so much, guys. Share review rate and till next time, as usual, keep changing and keep growing.