Listening to the eulogy at a funeral some time ago, I was left thinking that I wished I had known the person who was being spoken of. Now that was strange as the person who had died was quite well known to me. Yet the person described was not the person I thought I had known.

But it got me thinking, did I give this person the opportunity to be who they really were or did my pre (mis)conceptions about them get in the way of allowing them to be who they really were?

It’s interesting to focus upon what we see in others as many would argue that others are actually a mirror into our inner-most selves. What we admire in others is a reflection of what we think most deeply about ourselves and what we dislike in others is a reflection of what troubles us about ourselves.

At a conscious level we may laugh at this idea, but go a little deeper and it may shine some illuminating light upon ourselves and how we can grow and develop and importantly how we can learn from and get the best from other people.

Seeing challenging people as a lesson for ourselves may seem to be the wrong way of looking at things but the reality is that often our reaction to other people  can tell us more about ourselves than it does about them.

In developing and maintaining a business it is vital to learn the ‘blind spots’. The things that we don’t see about ourselves and our business or about those we deal with whether they are colleagues, suppliers or customers. Let the things that irritate or work us up about other people be a guide as to where we need to look within ourselves for our ‘blind spots’ things that can limit and restrict us from working with others to achieve our goals.