Rahul & Swati – Elbaek Model optimism gap

    A Pune startup executive rated himself a 9 on optimism until his colleague's Elbaek Model score revealed a hidden streak of caution. Here's how the tool exposes blind spots in accurate self-assessment.

    Rahul & Swati – Elbaek Model optimism gap

    Rahul & Swati: The Elbaek Model and the Optimism Gap

    Rahul, a senior executive at a fast-growing Pune startup, was certain he was one of the most optimistic people in his office — a 9 out of 10, by his own count. His colleague Swati saw someone very different: a leader who talked like a dreamer but, under pressure, quietly defaulted to caution. The three-point gap between their scores became one of the clearest lessons I have used in my workshops on why accurate self-assessment is a skill, not a personality trait.

    In short

    Where this sits on your Winning Kite

    Accurate Self-Assessment is the second trait on the EQ — left — side of your Winning Kite (KITE Leadership Framework). EQ, RQ and PQ together lift you toward Success at the top of the kite, but none of that lift is possible if your internal instrument — your sense of your own strengths and blind spots — is miscalibrated. The Elbaek Model is the practical tool I hand leaders to recalibrate that instrument.

    Who is Rahul, and what was his blind spot?

    Rahul was a senior executive at a startup in Pune — sharp, fast-moving, the kind of leader who talks in possibilities rather than problems. Ask Rahul to describe himself and he would tell you, without hesitation, that he was an optimist through and through. When I introduced the Elbaek Model to his leadership team as part of a workshop on self-awareness, Rahul rated himself 9 out of 10 on optimism and just 1 out of 10 on pessimism. In his own mind, the picture was simple: he saw the upside in almost everything.

    Then his colleague Swati was asked to rate Rahul on the exact same axis — Pessimistic versus Optimistic — without seeing his numbers first. Her scores landed very differently: 6 on optimism, 4 on pessimism. That is not a rounding error. That is a colleague telling Rahul, in the language of numbers, that the person she works with every day is nowhere near as consistently optimistic as he believes himself to be.

    Understanding the Elbaek Model

    The tool behind this story is the Uffe Elbaek Model, developed by the Danish innovator and organisational-development expert of the same name. Think of it as a self-assessment map. You choose personality and behaviour traits that matter in your context and arrange them as opposing pairs — axes with two ends. Common examples include:

    The rule that makes this exercise powerful is simple: on each axis pair, your two scores must add up to 10. You cannot be a 9 on optimism and also an 8 on pessimism — you have to choose where you genuinely sit on the spectrum. For instance, Nikhil, an IT manager from Bengaluru, rated himself 8 on being collaborative and 2 on independence, reflecting how much he leaned on team input. Ayesha, a financial analyst from Mumbai, gave herself a 9 for optimism and just 1 for pessimism — much like Rahul's own self-image, before Swati's numbers arrived.

    How the blind spot gets discovered

    The exercise has a second layer that most people miss when they hear about it casually: you don't just rate yourself once. You draw your own self-assessment diagram, and then a second diagram of how you perceive someone else. At the same time, your partner — a colleague, a friend, a mentor — draws two diagrams of their own: one for themselves, and one depicting how they see you.

    When you superimpose both sets of diagrams, the areas that don't overlap — the hatched, mismatched zones — are your blind spots. These are qualities and behaviours that are visible to others but invisible to you. You can sharpen the picture further by involving more than one partner; three or four honest assessments of you give a far richer, more reliable read than a single data point. And you are free to swap in whichever traits are most relevant to your own professional context — the axes above are starting points, not fixed rules.

    This is exactly what happened with Rahul. When Swati's rating came in lower on optimism and higher on pessimism than his own, the natural reaction — and Rahul's first reaction — was mild disbelief. But instead of dismissing it, Swati did the one thing that makes this tool actually useful: she gave him examples. She pointed to specific moments — a vendor negotiation Rahul had backed away from, a market expansion he had quietly delayed — where he had chosen the cautious path over the confident one, even while telling the room he "wasn't worried." Rahul realised that under real pressure, when money and reputation were on the line, his instinct wasn't pure optimism at all. It was calculated caution wearing an optimist's voice.

    Why the gap matters more than the score

    Here is the part I stress most in my sessions: the number itself is almost irrelevant. What matters is the size of the gap between how you rate yourself and how someone who works closely with you rates you. There are two directions this gap typically runs, and both are blind spots worth naming honestly.

    If you rate yourself much higher than your partner does — the way Rahul did — you likely haven't assessed yourself accurately, and ego is usually the reason. It's the workplace version of believing "main hi sabse best hoon," until someone quietly asks, in Hindi, "Teri aukaat kya hai?" — a blunt but honest check on an inflated self-image. That inflated view creates friction: you expect others to see your strengths the way you see them, and when they don't, you read it as their bias rather than your blind spot.

    If you rate yourself lower than others do, the story flips — you're likely dealing with a confidence gap, not an accuracy gap. Your team may already trust your judgment, decisiveness, or assertiveness more than you trust it yourself, and that under-confidence quietly caps how boldly you show up in meetings, negotiations, and decisions.

    Accurate self-assessment sits right in the middle of these two failure modes — not falsely inflated, not falsely deflated, just calibrated. That calibration is what raises your emotional quotient, because you can only manage what you can see clearly.

    Putting the Elbaek Model to work in your own career

    Using the Elbaek Model in your workplace can dramatically change how you show up, and it takes less than thirty minutes to run properly. Here is the sequence I recommend to every leader I train:

    1. Choose relevant traits. Adapt the model to axes that matter in your role: Honest vs. Diplomatic, Analytical vs. Creative, Introverted vs. Extroverted, Risk-Taking vs. Cautious, Innovative vs. Conventional, Assertive vs. Passive, Detail-Oriented vs. Strategic Thinking.
    2. Self-assessment. Rate yourself honestly on each axis. Don't overthink it or try to guess the "correct" or most impressive answer — authenticity is the entire point.
    3. External assessment. Ask someone trustworthy and candid — an immediate supervisor, a reliable teammate, or a mentor — to evaluate you on the exact same traits, without seeing your scores first.
    4. Compare and identify blind spots. Overlay your self-assessment with theirs. Wherever the gap is widest, have an open conversation about it. That single conversation, more than the exercise itself, is what moves the needle on your self-awareness and your professional relationships.

    The tool travels well: more Indian workplace examples

    Rahul's story is not a one-off. I have watched the same pattern surface across very different sectors once leaders run this exercise honestly.

    Manufacturing — Chennai. Ramesh, a production manager at an automotive plant, discovered through the Elbaek Model that his team perceived him as overly assertive, almost aggressive — a self-image he had never held about himself. Once he saw the gap, he consciously shifted toward a more collaborative leadership style, and his team's productivity and morale both improved.

    Education — Hyderabad. Priya, a university professor, believed she was quite innovative in her teaching. Her peers, through the same exercise, saw her as cautious and hesitant to try new methods. That gap pushed her to introduce new digital tools in her classroom, earning strong feedback from both students and colleagues.

    Hospitality — Jaipur. Arjun, the general manager at a luxury hotel, learned through the Elbaek Model that his own optimism sometimes caused him to wave away practical concerns his team raised. Once aware of it, he learned to balance optimism with realism, and his projects started running with fewer late surprises.

    IT — Bengaluru. Not every gap runs in the direction of over-confidence. A team lead I'll call Priya rated herself only 3 out of 10 on assertiveness. Her own team rated her a 7. She had been quietly under-selling her own decisiveness in meetings, when the people who reported to her already experienced her as clear and firm. Seeing the gap gave her permission to trust her own instincts more in the room.

    Why we resist seeing ourselves clearly

    There is an old idea in Indian mythology that captures why external perspective matters so much: the story of Jamwant and Hanuman from the Ramayana. When Lord Rama's army reached the southern coast and needed someone to cross the ocean to Lanka, Hanuman — despite being the son of Vayu and possessing extraordinary strength — stayed silent. A childhood curse had made him forget his own power; he genuinely believed he was an ordinary vanara. It was Jamwant, the wise bear king, who reminded Hanuman who he truly was — "You have simply forgotten who you are and what you're capable of." The moment Hanuman heard it, something in him shifted, and he made the leap that changed the course of the epic.

    Every professional needs a Jamwant — someone who reflects back what you cannot see about yourself, in either direction. Sometimes that means reminding you of a strength you've forgotten, the way Jamwant did for Hanuman. Sometimes, like Swati did for Rahul, it means gently showing you a caution you didn't know you were carrying. Either way, the discomfort of hearing it is smaller than the cost of never hearing it at all. As I often remind participants in my sessions, this echoes what Daniel Goleman calls the foundation of emotional intelligence — self-awareness — though the Elbaek Model gives Indian professionals a concrete, numbers-based way to practise it rather than leaving it as an abstract idea.

    Your next step

    Now it's your turn. Select two or three trait axes that matter most in your current role. Rate yourself honestly, then ask someone whose judgment you trust to rate you on the same axes, without seeing your numbers first. Sit with whatever gap shows up, and have the conversation Rahul and Swati had — openly, without defensiveness. That single conversation is often the difference between a leader who thinks they know themselves and one who actually does.

    If you want to run this exercise properly across your leadership team — with facilitation, real trait sets suited to your industry, and honest group discussion — that's exactly the kind of work I do in my Signature Corporate Training Programs and through the wider set of corporate training topics I deliver. You can also read more about how Accurate Self-Assessment fits into the complete Winning Kite (KITE Leadership Framework), or reach out directly through my contact page to bring this to your organisation.

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    Avinash has trained the Indian Army, BRO, RBI, BARC, JSW Steel and 1000+ corporate leaders across India. His work focuses on leadership, emotional intelligence and behavioural training rooted in Indian values and modern business needs.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the Elbaek Model?

    The Elbaek Model, created by Danish innovator Uffe Elbaek, is a self-assessment tool that plots your personality on trait axes (like Optimistic vs. Pessimistic) using two ratings that must add up to 10. You rate yourself, someone who knows you rates you on the same axes, and the gap between the two reveals your blind spots.

    What was Rahul's optimism gap in the Elbaek Model example?

    Rahul, a senior executive at a Pune startup, rated himself 9 on optimism and 1 on pessimism. His colleague Swati, using the same axis, rated him only 6 on optimism and 4 on pessimism. The 3-point-plus gap on both ends showed Rahul that he was more cautious under pressure than he believed himself to be.

    How does the Elbaek Model connect to accurate self-assessment and EQ?

    Accurate Self-Assessment is a core trait of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) on the Winning Kite. The Elbaek Model operationalises it: instead of guessing whether you know yourself well, it gives you a number, a comparison, and a conversation. Closing the gap between self-view and others' view is exactly what raises your EQ.

    How do I run the Elbaek Model exercise with my own team?

    Pick 4 to 6 trait pairs relevant to your role (e.g. Risk-Taking vs. Cautious, Assertive vs. Passive). Rate yourself honestly on each pair out of 10. Ask a trusted colleague, manager, or mentor to rate you on the same pairs without seeing your scores first. Compare, discuss the biggest gaps openly, and use what you learn to recalibrate — not to defend your original score.

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