The 10 Biggest Leadership Blindspots Based on 10 Years of Research

How to identify these blindspots for yourself, and most importantly, how to avoid them

👋 Howdy! Claire here, Founder & CEO of Canopy. I've spent the last decade training 50,000+ managers and studying 50+ years worth of leadership and team dynamics research, so you don’t have to 😅 I distill all my learnings in this weekly newsletter.

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My team was falling apart under pressure, and I was furious.

The quality of work had plummeted. Deadlines were slipping. People seemed disconnected from our goals and were making careless mistakes. Week after week, I watched my once-bold team grow increasingly cautious and unfocused.

Desperate to solve this mystery lapse in performance, I took a weekend to reflect. A question came to mind from famed executive coach Jerry Colonna, whom I'd had the privilege of speaking with years earlier. He’d asked me:

"What are the conditions that you don't want to create that you are in fact complicit in creating?"

The answer drove through to my spine: The problem was me.

I was responsible for my team's condition. I was complicit.

My anxiety was creating frenzy. My shifting expectations were impossible to follow. My failure to provide context was setting everyone up to fail. While searching for solutions everywhere else, I had missed the most obvious place to begin with — myself.

After a decade of training thousands of leaders, I've discovered this pattern repeats endlessly. Our greatest workplace challenges often stem from conditions we've unknowingly created. The problems we blame on our teams frequently trace back to our own blindspots. It’s never the answer we want to hear, but it’s the answer we need.

Here are the ten critical leadership blindspots I've seen derail even the most well-intentioned leaders, myself very much included…

Blindspot #1: "What our team doesn't know doesn't hurt them."

Headcount changes, compensation decisions, strategic pivots — the territory of our work as leaders is often riddled with landmines. Not everything can nor should be fully transparent. However, the absence of information creates its own problems.

When I've seen this blindspot play out:

I recall an organization where two key leadership members were dismissed for performance reasons, but no explanation was provided for their departure. Without context, rumors spread about potential layoffs and a giant re-org. Fear rippled throughout the organization. Even a few top performers approached me, wondering if they should start looking for another job — all because of the information vacuum leadership had unintentionally created.

This doesn't mean throwing all discretion out the window. Rather, when you choose not to be transparent, you must take responsibility for the speculation and uncertainty that follows.

Self-assessment questions:

• When you can't share everything, how do you provide enough context to prevent harmful speculation?

• How might your team be filling in the blanks about situations where you've been vague or silent?

Action to try:

Identify one area where you've been less than forthcoming. Find a way to share more context that doesn’t include sensitive details — or be explicit in why you can’t share more context — and observe how it affects team trust and performance.

Blindspot #2: "Everyone should share my sense of urgency."

Leaders are prenatally impatient. We always want things done better or faster. And while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, we often forget that our own sense of urgency stems from our own experience. We feel in the importance of the mission in our gut, we feel the needs of our customers in our bones — but that urgency isn't automatically transferred to our team.

How I've fallen victim to this blindspot:

About a decade ago, I was helping our team prepare for a product launch — one that had taken 3 months to prepare. Two weeks before launch, I became increasingly concerned about the remaining tasks. In a meeting, I found myself chastising a team member for focusing on minor details rather than "the critical stuff." Later, I realized they never received information about what constituted as critical. I apologized immediately, but never forgot this egregious oversight.

Our team doesn’t embody urgency in the same way we do, by default. And, as leaders, we shouldn’t expect them to. If you have an expectation of urgency, recognize that it's your responsibility to communicate effectively, not your team's failure to intuit.

Self-assessment questions:

• When you feel impatient with progress, do you first check whether you've provided the context needed for urgency?

• How often do you explain the "why" behind urgent requests, not just the deadline?

Action to try:

Ask each team member to rank what they see as top priorities, and see if it aligns with what you had in mind. If there is a discrepancy, it’s on you (not them) to clarify the required level of urgency.

Blindspot #3: "As long as my team likes me, they trust me."

You give someone a compliment ("I really like the sweater you're wearing") or highlight a commonality ("I'm a huge Minnesota Timberwolves fan too")… But that doesn't necessarily signal that you would rely on them for an important task. A critical part of trust is this sense of reliance, that your team feels they can count on you. (Researchers call this "cognitive trust," which is the most sustained and lasting form of trust.) Someone liking you is very different than someone trusting you.

When I've seen this blindspot occur:

A leader might spend the first ten minutes of every one-on-one asking about weekend plans and family updates, believing these personal connections are building deep trust. Meanwhile, their team is frustrated because this same leader consistently misses deadlines for providing feedback on their work.

Of course, building positive report on a team is absolutely helpful for building trust. But it should not be seen as the only form of trust you should be focused on cultivating. Make sure that you are a leader that your team can rely on — that is the strongest form of trust you can build.

Self-assessment questions:

• When was the last time you made a commitment to a team member and then didn't deliver on time?

• Can you identify three promises you made to your team in the past month and whether you kept them?

Action to try:

Rate yourself on a scale of 1-5 on the following statement: "When I say I'll do something, my team can count on me to deliver without needing reminders."

Blindspot #4: "I don't play favorites with my team."

We all have preferences — including who we enjoy working with. The problem arises when these natural affinities turn into favoritism, filtering into opportunities, support, and recognition. Pretending that you don't have these preferences is where you run into trouble: You're then not being truthful enough to recognize how they might be playing out.

When I've seen this happen:

A leader has two equally talented team members: Amy and Jordan. The leader finds Amy's communication style more aligned with theirs and enjoys their conversations. Over time, they assign Amy the high-visibility projects, provide more detailed feedback on her work, and mention her contributions in executive meetings. Meanwhile, Jordan's equally valuable work receives less recognition, fewer growth opportunities, and less attention.

These imbalances create resentment and dysfunction. Team members notice favoritism long before leaders realize they're displaying it, and it erodes trust throughout the organization.

Self-assessment questions:

• How do you ensure your personal preferences don't affect who gets challenging assignments or recognition?

• When's the last time you praised the work of someone whose style differs from yours?

Action to try:

Review your calendar for the past month. Note how your time was distributed across team members and ask yourself whether allocation patterns reveal unconscious favoritism.

Blindspot #5: "I treat everyone the way that I want to be treated."

Most of us were taught the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you want to be treated.” In theory, it's well-meaning. But in reality, not everyone is “you” :-) We each have our own proclivities and preferences for how we want to do things… And so we should take that into consideration, rather than assuming those preferences are the same as ours.

When I've made this mistake myself:

A couple of years ago, I wanted to ensure our team was adequately taking vacation. With our unlimited vacation policy, I worried folks weren't taking enough time off. I suggested we have one Friday every month that the entire company takes off, thinking that's what I would personally prefer, and the team would love the idea. It wasn't until our CTO pointed out that this wasn't helpful for him or several others because they preferred taking time off during the middle of the month on a more flexible schedule. I’d mistakenly projected my preferences — I’d assumed everyone wanted something just because it's something I wanted.

Remember: True empathy isn't about projecting our own preferences onto others.

Self-assessment questions:

• What aspects of your management style are based on your personal preferences rather than your team's needs?

• What management practices do you avoid because you personally dislike them, without checking if they might benefit your team?

Action to try:

During your next one-on-one conversation this week, ask: "How can I better support your work style?" Listen closely to the details of what their preferences are. Then implement at least one suggestion from each person.

Blindspot #6: "I'm the only one who can solve this problem."

Sometimes it’s true: We are the only person who can solve a particular problem. But other times, it’s not. As leaders, we can find ourselves assigning ourselves to problems that we enjoy tackling or we fear others messing it up, rather than enabling our team to solve them and become more self-sufficient.

When I've seen this happen:

A team consistently brings customer escalations to their leader because the leader has a knack for handling difficult situations. While this works in the short term, the leader becomes stretched thin and unavailable for strategic work. Meanwhile, the team never develops these crucial skills, creating a dependency cycle that limits everyone's growth.

Yes, as leaders, we have valuable expertise and experience, but we don't want that expertise and experience to be purely isolated. We want to be replaceable. A sign of great leadership is helping our team solve problems themselves rather than solving all the problems ourselves.

Self-assessment questions:

• How often do team members come to you with problems versus proposed solutions?

• What expertise do you have that you haven't systematically shared with anyone else?

Action to try:

This week, when someone brings you a problem, resist solving it. Instead, consider teaching them how to solve it. Coach them through their own solution.

Blindspot #7: "Some problems will work themselves out."

I thought this to myself before, especially if I've been facing a particularly draining problem. It's understandable, given how delicate or tricky a situation is to untangle. Yet it is also wishful thinking. Usually, the problem that we're avoiding is the problem only we is the leader have the power to address. It's up to us to confront it.

When I've seen this occur:

A high-performing team member consistently interrupts and dismisses ideas from junior colleagues in meetings. Instead of addressing it directly, the leader hopes they'll recognize the issue themselves after seeing the leader's positive model of inclusivity. However, six months later, two talented junior team members resign, citing "lack of voice" in their exit interviews.

These situations almost never resolve themselves. Intervention is needed that only a leader can take: Having a conversation about changing behavior, coaching the person to success, or making the difficult decision to let someone go. These problems tend to get worse when we turn a blind eye to them. Don’t fall for the myth that they'll magically disappear.

Self-assessment questions:

• What issue on your team have you been hoping will improve without your direct intervention?

• What's the potential cost to your team if you wait another month to address this issue?

Action to try:

List one problem you've been avoiding and commit to a specific date this week to take the first step toward addressing it.

Blindspot #8: "My team has the same context I do."

As leaders, we consistently underestimate the information gap between ourselves and our teams. Because of meetings your team members aren't in, or experiences they haven't had, you as a leader naturally know more and have greater perspective on the big picture.

When I've observed this happening:

After six months of strategic planning sessions with all leaders, an executive team announces a major pivot to the organization. Leaders are then confused when frontline employees seem resistant and ask "unnecessary" questions — forgetting they haven't been part of the lengthy discussions that led to this decision and haven't processed the change like leaders have.

Keep in mind that as a leader, you have more context than you might be aware of. It's up to you to help fill in those gaps for your team.

Self-assessment questions:

• When was the last time you explicitly connected your team's day-to-day work to the organization's bigger objectives?

• What information do you have access to that your team doesn't? How much of that would help them do their jobs better?

Action to try:

At your next meeting, ask team members to briefly articulate the current top priority and why it matters. The alignment (or lack thereof) in their answers will reveal your context-sharing effectiveness.

Blindspot #9: "My team doesn't know how hard I fight for them."

Leadership can feel thankless. We work hard behind the scenes, fighting for resources, navigating politics, and removing obstacles to set our teams up for success. When team members complain about minor issues ("Why can't we have more days off?") after we've secured hard-won victories, resentment naturally builds.

When I've seen this happen:

A leader spends three months negotiating with executives to get their team a budget increase and prevent layoffs during a difficult quarter. Rather than appreciation, the leader faces complaints about the small end-of-year bonuses. The frustration boils over, and the leader lashes out in passive-aggressive ways, thinking, "Do you have any idea what I had to do to even get you those bonuses?"

The blindspot emerges when this resentment seeps into your interactions. The problem isn't your team's lack of appreciation — it's the expectation gap you've created by not communicating your efforts effectively.

Self-assessment questions:

• How often do you share context about the effort that went into decisions or resources you've secured?

• What would happen if you were more transparent about your own challenges and victories?

Action to try:

Create appropriate transparency around your behind-the-scenes work. This isn't about seeking praise — it's about providing context that helps your team understand organizational realities and appreciate the full picture.

Blindspot #10: "It's personally important to me that I'm seen as a good leader."

This might be the most dangerous blindspot of all: Believing your worth as a person is connected to your "goodness" as a leader. I'll be the first to raise my hand as someone who has fallen prey to this blindspot time and again.

How I've personally fallen into this trap:

A few years ago, I worked with a team member who put tremendous effort into their work. They wanted to be successful, but their output didn't meet expectations. Rather than having direct conversations about performance, I became preoccupied with being seen as a “good leader” and only offered encouragement instead of real feedback. When the subpar results had gone on for over six months, I decided to let them go — and they were very surprised. I'll never forget that shocked reaction and how the root cause was my attachment to be being seen as a “good leader.” I failed to have hard conversations because I was trying to play the role of being "supportive" and "encouraging.”

When our identity is wrapped up in being a "good leader," we are resistant to seeing our shortcomings, often using our identity as a shield for what we don’t want to face about ourselves. Our ego protects our self-image by filtering out contradictory information. This creates the largest gap between intention and impact.

Self-assessment questions:

• How do you typically respond to critical feedback about your leadership?

• When was the last time you were genuinely surprised by how someone experienced your leadership?

Action to try:

Ask a trusted colleague who works closely with you: "What's one assumption I make about my leadership style that might not match reality?" Listen without defending or explaining.

It doesn’t feel good to read, but it feels good to change

This wasn't the most fun piece for me to write. I've made each of these mistakes listed in these blindspots, myself, I’m sure at least twice over. I winced, thinking about the negative effects that I might have had on my team. And I felt fear creep up in me: Maybe there are even more blind spots that I am not aware of as well… What does that mean?

It means that I am human. I am fallible.

But most importantly, it also means that I can get better.

While it might not feel good to read, it does feel good to change. I assure you that the redemption comes in your efforts to overturn these blindspots. Instead of treating this article like a list of faults or source of self-conscious cringe, view it as project list or work-in-progress list: Areas for you to explore, create accountability around, and choose to be better.

Here's an approach to try:

1. Choose one blindspot. Don't try to fix everything at once. Select the single blindspot that resonated most strongly or that your team would benefit most from you addressing.

2. Create accountability. Share your focus area with someone you trust — a colleague, mentor, or even your team. Say: "I've realized I might have a blindspot around [X]. I'm working to improve this over the next month. Would you be willing to give me candid feedback on my progress?"

3. Set a concrete timeframe. Give yourself 30 days of deliberate focus on this one area. This is long enough to create momentum but short enough to maintain focus.

4. Build in regular reflection. Schedule a 15-minute calendar appointment with yourself every Friday to assess your progress. Ask yourself: What situations triggered this blindspot this week? How did I respond differently? What impact did I observe?

5. Celebrate progress, not perfection. Leadership growth isn't linear. You'll have days where old patterns emerge. That's normal. Acknowledge the setback, recommit to awareness, and keep going.

Remember, even after a decade of studying and teaching leadership, I still catch myself falling into these blindspots. That's why I wrote this piece — as much as a reminder to myself as a resource for you.

A meaningful shift starts with the courage to see ourselves clearly. Which blindspot will you tackle first?

- Claire

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Keen to work through some of these blindspots, yourself? Here are ways you can directly work directly with me, Claire, CEO of Canopy:

• 📣 Invite me to deliver team keynotes and workshops, remotely or in person on “Biggest Leadership Mistakes and How to Avoid Them” or “The Accidental Bad Boss.”

• 🌿 Use Canopy, our lightweight leadership learning app, in your day-to-day, and dive in specifically on uncovering blindspots & leadership foundations. (This specific module is in fact 100% free.)

• 🚂 Partner with me to roll-out a leadership training program for your managers to help them avoid and overcome these blindspots.

• 🤝 Explore 1:1 executive coaching with me personally to help see your own blindspots more clearly, and work through them. (I’ve had a few spots open up for 2025 — I’ve had the privilege of coaching leaders at companies like Apple and Uber, and welcome the opportunity to share those learnings in-depth with folks one-on-one.)

I’d be honored to chat and see what might be the best fit for you. Feel free to reach out to me directly here 💚

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