Lifting the Veil: Uncovering Blind Spots in Coaching

No matter how skilled we are as coaches, there are always things we can’t see—blind spots that shape our perceptions, decisions, and interactions without our conscious awareness. 

These blind spots can influence not only our personal growth but also the effectiveness of the coaching relationship. 

Similarly, clients come with their own blind spots, which, left unnoticed, can limit their potential for growth and change.

The concept of the blind spot is well captured by the Johari Window model, which highlights the gap between what we know about ourselves and what others can see but we remain unaware of. 

While this model is often used to help individuals gain greater self-awareness, it has significant implications for coaches and for coaching supervision. 

Coaches, just like their clients, can become locked into habitual ways of thinking, perceiving, or working that obscure important insights.

Coaching supervision offers a valuable space for surfacing these blind spots. 

By providing an external perspective, supervision helps coaches “take the blinkers off,” revealing the areas they might be missing and allowing for meaningful change and development to emerge.

The Johari Window: Understanding Blind Spots in Coaching

The Johari Window is a simple yet powerful model that illustrates how blind spots operate. It divides self-awareness into four quadrants:

1. Open Area: What is known by both the person and others.
2. Hidden Area: What the person knows about themselves but keeps hidden from others.
3. Blind Area: What others can see but the person cannot.
4. Unknown Area: What neither the person nor others are aware of.

It’s the blind area—what others can see but we cannot—that is particularly relevant for coaches. 

These blind spots can affect how we approach our clients, how we interpret their challenges, and how we engage in the coaching process. 

Without external feedback or reflection, these blind spots remain hidden, limiting our ability to grow as coaches.

In coaching supervision, we can begin to lift the veil on the blind spot. 

By engaging in reflective dialogue with a supervisor, coaches can bring these blind spots into view, gaining new insights into their practice and how they are showing up in the coaching relationship.

Blind Spots in the Coaching Relationship

As already mentioned, blind spots don’t just affect the coach’s personal development—they also influence the dynamics of the coaching relationship. 

As coaches, we often pride ourselves on being fully present and objective in our work. 

But, in fact, there are always areas where our own biases, assumptions, and unconscious behaviours can influence the relationship in ways we don’t notice.

For example:

• Over-identification with the client: A coach might relate too closely to a client’s experience, unconsciously steering the conversation in a way that aligns with their own perspective rather than the client’s needs.
• Staying too safe: Sometimes, coaches may unconsciously avoid challenging their clients, fearing that doing so will harm the relationship or lead to discomfort. This blind spot can limit the client’s growth and reduce the effectiveness of the coaching.
• Assuming competence: A coach might believe they’ve mastered a particular skill or approach, not realising that their blind spot is preventing them from seeing areas where they could still improve.
• Ethical dilemma: there can often be an emerging ethical dilemma whether in  the process of the coaching or the content of it, that neither the coach nor the coaching supervisor are aware of.

Supervision allows coaches to step back from the coaching relationship and explore these blind spots. 

By examining their own approach and responses, coaches can begin to see how their blind spots are influencing the work and take steps to address them.

Eye 4: The Coach’s Experience and Blind Spots

Under Eye 4 of the 7-Eyed Model, supervision focuses on the coach’s internal world—how they experience the coaching process and how their blind spots might be shaping their interactions with clients. 

Often, blind spots are unconscious patterns or behaviours that the coach has developed over time. 

Without external feedback, these patterns remain invisible, even as they influence the coach’s work.

In supervision, the coach is invited to explore:

• Where might you be unconsciously avoiding certain topics or clients?
• What assumptions are you making about your client’s needs or challenges?
• How might your personal experiences or beliefs be shaping your approach to this client?

By engaging with these questions, the coach can start to uncover their blind spots, gaining greater self-awareness and developing more effective strategies for supporting their clients.

Eye 1: The Client’s Blind Spots

Just as coaches have blind spots, so do clients. 

Eye 1 focuses on the client’s experience, and in supervision, the coach can reflect on the client’s blind spots—those areas where the client is unaware of their own limitations or where their behaviour is unconsciously blocking their progress.

Clients may, for example:

Be unaware of their own patterns: A client might repeatedly struggle with the same issue without realising that their own behaviours or beliefs are contributing to the problem.

Project onto others: A client may blame external circumstances or other people for their challenges, without recognising how their own actions or mindset are part of the dynamic.

Avoid vulnerability: Clients may be reluctant to explore deeper emotional or personal issues, preferring to stay in the “safe zone” of surface-level goals.

In supervision, the coach can explore these client blind spots as well as their own and reflect on how they might help the client gain greater self-awareness. 

This may involve asking powerful questions, gently challenging the client’s assumptions, or bringing attention to the patterns the client is unaware of.

Eye 3: The Coach-Client Relationship

The dynamic between coach and client is often shaped by mutual blind spots—areas where both parties are unaware of the unconscious influences affecting the relationship. 

Under Eye 3, supervision explores how blind spots in the coaching relationship might be limiting progress or creating barriers to deeper work.

For example:

Unconscious collusion: A coach and client might both avoid addressing difficult topics, staying in a comfort zone where real growth isn’t happening. Neither party may fully realise that this avoidance is occurring, as it’s driven by a blind spot in their shared dynamic.

Bias and assumptions: Blind spots might also arise when the coach unconsciously reinforces the client’s assumptions, rather than challenging them. This can happen when the coach shares the same worldview or biases as the client, limiting the range of perspectives explored.

Supervision helps coaches identify these relational blind spots, allowing them to adjust their approach and engage with clients in a more open, reflective way. 

By surfacing what’s been hidden, the coaching relationship can move into new, more productive territory.

Eye 7: Systemic Blind Spots in Coaching

Finally, Eye 7 addresses the systemic blind spots—those unseen influences that come from the broader context in which the coaching takes place. 

These might include organisational culture, power dynamics, or unspoken norms that shape how both coach and client behave. 

Often, these systemic blind spots are so ingrained that neither coach nor client notices their influence.

For example:

In a hierarchical organisation, both the coach and client might unconsciously align their behaviour with the unspoken expectations of senior leadership, even if those expectations aren’t helpful to the client’s goals.

Cultural norms around gender, authority, or teamwork might create blind spots in how the coach approaches certain topics with the client.

Again, coaching supervision helps coaches explore these systemic influences, bringing awareness to how the broader context might be shaping their work. 

By recognising these blind spots, coaches can help their clients break free from limiting assumptions or patterns imposed by the system.

Conclusion: Taking the Blinkers Off

Blind spots are an inevitable part of human experience—we can’t see everything, and we all have areas of unconsciousness. 

But in coaching, these blind spots can limit growth, both for the coach and the client. By leaving certain patterns, assumptions, or behaviours unexamined, we risk missing the opportunities for deeper change and development.

Supervision provides a critical space for surfacing these blind spots. 

By engaging in reflective dialogue, coaches can begin to see what they’ve been missing—whether it’s in their own approach, their client’s behaviour, or the broader system. 

Once these blind spots are brought into awareness, change becomes possible, and both coach and client can move forward with greater clarity, insight, and purpose.

In the end, supervision helps us take the blinkers off, allowing for a richer, more authentic coaching process that’s free from the limitations of what we don’t see.