Book Review on Leadership Blind Spots by Robert Bruce Shaw
Most leadership failures aren’t caused by a lack of intelligence or experience. They’re caused by something far quieter: the things leaders don’t see soon enough. That’s the central argument in Robert Bruce Shaw’s Leadership Blind Spots — a book that offers a sharp, practical lens for understanding the gap between a leader’s intentions and their impact.
Shaw’s premise is simple: leaders don’t get derailed by what they know. They get derailed by what they miss. And the higher the role, the more likely those blind spots are to go unchallenged.
The commercial implications are significant. Research across professional services and corporate environments shows that:
- Misalignment between leaders and teams can reduce productivity by 10–25%
- Rework caused by unclear direction can consume 15–30% of project budgets
- Poorly surfaced behavioural issues can lead to six‑figure leakage in client relationships
What makes the book compelling is its practicality. Shaw doesn’t treat blind spots as character flaws, he treats them as predictable leadership patterns which are the natural result of strengths overused, feedback diluted, and pressure accelerating habitual behaviour. This framing acknowledges the reality of senior leadership without moralising it.
At the heart of the book is a simple 2×2 matrix mapping how leaders see themselves against how others experience them. The four quadrants; Known Strengths, Blind Spots, Hidden Strengths, and Unknown Weaknesses that provides leaders a language for understanding misalignment. More importantly, they offer a way to locate where risk or potential may be sitting unnoticed.
Shaw’s insight that blind spots often come from strengths overused is one of the book’s most resonant ideas. It explains why capable, well‑intentioned leaders can unintentionally create friction or drift. Decisiveness becomes rigidity. Pace becomes impatience. High standards become perfectionism. These shifts are rarely deliberate. They’re simply what happens when strengths are applied without awareness of context or impact.
The book is particularly strong in its exploration of how blind spots form and why they persist. Shaw highlights the structural realities of senior roles: filtered feedback, increased distance, and the natural reluctance of others to challenge authority. He also emphasises the importance of seeking diverse perspectives, noticing behavioural patterns, and paying attention to early signals long before they become visible in performance data.
The deeper message is clear: blind spots can’t be eliminated, but they can be surfaced early. Leaders don’t need perfect self‑awareness. They need enough awareness to adjust before the consequences become costly; financially, relationally, or culturally.
For senior leaders, Leadership Blind Spots offers both a mirror and a map. The mirror helps you see where your perception may be incomplete. The map helps you understand what to do with that insight. It’s not a book about fixing yourself. It’s a book about understanding yourself and the impact you have on the people and systems around you.
A worthwhile read for anyone who wants to lead with clarity, humility, and fewer expensive surprises.