My sisters and I were seated around the dining table at my mom and dad’s house. For some reason, one of us mentioned Instagram stories. “Did you know that you make a smacking sound with your lips at the end of your sentences when you post a story?” my sister told my other sister. “What? Really?,” she answered. This started a conversation about the strange habits all of us have when speaking. Funny thing was, most of us had no clue we did them. That’s because they are blind spots.
All of us have things about ourselves that we can’t see. But if we want to become better communicators, we have to uncover our blind spots. Let’s look at what they are and how to conquer them.
What are blind spots?
Forbes writer Jose Ruiz says, “Weaknesses that we know about aren’t likely to derail us from our goals. However, the weaknesses that we don’t know about are the dangerous ones.” And that’s what blind spots are: personal weaknesses that we can’t see.
It seems strange to think that we somehow lack the ability to assess our own public speaking skills. But we do. I know this because when I give my public speaking students feedback on their presentations, they are often surprised by my comments. For example, one student had a habit of looking up at the ceiling quite frequently rather than at her audience. She confessed that she has absolutely no recollection of looking up at all and felt like she had good eye contact with her audience. But anyone in the audience who was paying attention could see she wasn’t looking at us often. So if we can’t see our own weaknesses, how do battle them?
How to do we conquer them?
Really the only way to know your blind spots and overcome them is to get feedback. Unless you have the benefit of brutally honest and beloved sisters like I do, it will be nearly impossible for you to understand the blind spots you have to your own speaking idiosyncrasies. You have to enlist the help of others.
Here are 3 ways to get feedback on your blind spots:
- Trade with other speakers. If you know of others who are trying to develop their speaking skills, you might consider forming a small group. Take turns listening to each others’ presentations and then providing feedback. If you all have the goal of improving your presentation skills, you are likely to be honest and constructive with the feedback that you give and receptive to the feedback you hear.
- Survey the audience. If you have a presentation coming up, consider handing out a survey following your presentation. Or create an online survey link and ask the audience to participate. It might be hard to get feedback this way, so you may consider offering a small prize drawing for anyone who completes the survey.
- Hire a presentation coach. While this is a bit of an investment, few things will provide as valuable in the long run as becoming a better communicator. Ethos3 offers speaker’s training through our Presentation Mentor program. We are happy to put you in touch with an expert who can help you see and conquer your blind spots.
When it comes to making progress with your presentation skills, you can only improve on the weaknesses you know about. And that’s what makes blind spots so tough.
Let us know if we can help you identify your blind spots. (We do a bunch of other stuff, too.) Check out our presentation training and design services now.
