Self-Awareness: The Starting Point for Leadership

Why should anyone be led by you?"

In 2000, Robert Giffee and Gareth Jones published an article in Harvard Business Review (HBR) entitled, "Why Should Anyone be Led by You?" Five years later, they published the first edition of a book by the same name, subtitled, "What it Takes to be An Authentic Leader." The authors wrote about putting this question to the executives they encountered regularly in their business program classes and otherwise. When they did, a hush came over the room.

Today, most leaders have heard this question previously and have even had it asked of them personally. They have participated in leadership development programs and read the latest books on leadership. They know that being a leader in more than name only requires having followers. They want to understand how to be better leaders and inspire others to follow a path toward a vision with them.

Over 20 years after the article was written by Goffee and Jones, the question remains important and intriguing to leaders worldwide. Answering the question requires a deeper consideration of oneself and the things that one brings to the role of leadership. Leaders, who by nature of the role itself, love having a conversation turn to them, are often happy to tell you why others follow them.

However, how many leaders do you know who have done the work to truly answer this question? How many people do you know who have done the work to truly answer another similar question: Why should anyone believe in you?

Self-awareness is key to considering and answering these important questions. In a 2018 article in Harvard Business Review (HBR) titled "Self-Awareness Can Help Leaders More than an MBA Can," Bill George, a professor at Harvard Business School, and former CEO of Medtronic said:

"Self-awareness is the starting point of leadership. Self-awareness is the skill of being aware of our thoughts, emotions, and values from moment to moment. Through self-awareness, we can lead ourselves with authenticity and integrity — and in turn, better lead others and our organizations."

Tasha Eurich and team conducted a large-scale scientific study of self-awareness, and wrote about it in another HBR article titled, "What Self-Awareness Is and How to Cultivate It: It's Not Just About Introspection." In 10 separate investigations with nearly 5,000 participants, the researchers examined what self-awareness really is, why we need it, and how we can increase it. Among other results, they found that even though most people believe they are self-aware, self-awareness is a "truly rare quality," estimating only 10 to 15 percent of people studied fit the criteria.

In addition, they found that there are two types of self-awareness that they describe as follows:

"…internal self-awareness represents how clearly we see our own values, passions, aspirations, fit with our environment, reactions (including thoughts, feelings, behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses), and impact on others. We've found that internal self-awareness is associated with higher job and relationship satisfaction, personal and social control, and happiness; it is negatively related to anxiety, stress, and depression.

The second category, external self-awareness, means understanding how other people view us, in terms of those same factors listed above. Our research shows that people who know how others see them are more skilled at showing empathy and taking others' perspectives. For leaders who see themselves as their employees do, their employees tend to have a better relationship with them, feel more satisfied with them, and see them as more effective in general."

Self-awareness likely became best known as a concept very important to leadership and interactions at work with the research on Emotional Intelligence (EI). Daniel Goleman, a primary researcher in the field of EI defined it as "The capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships."

Goleman identified four domains important to EI. Within each of the four domains are the competencies that make someone highly effective. The domains and competencies within each domain identified by Goleman include:

Self-Awareness – Emotional Self-Awareness

Self-Management – Emotional Balance, Adaptability, Achieve, Positivity

Social Awareness – Empathy, Organizational Awareness

Relationship Management – Influence, Coach, Conflict Management, Teamwork, Inspire

Self-awareness is defined in Goleman's book titled Emotional Intelligence in the words of John Mayer, a co-formulator of the theory of emotional intelligence as: "being aware of both our mood and our thoughts about that mood." Self-awareness as discussed in Goleman's EI research was not parsed out as Eurich did to include both internal self-awareness and external self-awareness. But, Eurich's research reveals the differences between them and how each operates distinctly in relationship to other facets of personality, for example.

Others recognize that it is important for individuals to be both internally, and externally self-aware, using different terminology. For example, Simon Sinek, in discussing the importance of self-reflection, said, "You can't assess yourself. You have to have that buttress of the assessment of others. We're social animals. We can't do this thing called career or life alone."

Self-awareness, as noted by Bill George, is "the starting point for leadership." It is the foundation of strong leadership. Building self-awareness or self-insight is the first necessary condition for the development and growth as a leader. A leader can build more skills, such as communication skills or coaching skills, but they cannot ever be the authentic leader that others want to follow without self-awareness.

And, developing one's self-awareness is not easy. It is a much more difficult, in-depth, psychological endeavor than developing communication or coaching skills, for example. It requires more effort, occurs over time, and often involves facing truths about ourselves that we would rather ignore or deny.

As we turn the calendars to 2024, however, most leaders can benefit from making a renewed commitment to better understanding themselves, both internally (how they see themselves) and externally (how others see them). There are many ways to build this insight including:

Completing self-assessments that enhance understanding of things like values, personality characteristics, or how we view our own strengths and weaknesses.

Having others complete an assessment of how they view us (generally a 360-degree assessment). This helps enhance external self-awareness.

Working with a mentor who models self-awareness.

Working with a coach who can help you understand yourself and the themes of your life.

Working with a therapist who can help you delve even deeper into the psychological underpinnings of who you are.

By becoming more self-aware, and recognizing strengths, weaknesses, and hidden biases, leaders gain the trust of their team members — and increase their credibility. There are also many other benefits. For example, self-aware leaders can influence a culture of people to develop self-awareness skills through learning and development (L&D) and by promoting continuous growth and development.

So, in answering that question of, "Why should anyone be led by you?", dig deep and continue to develop that most important asset for a leader's success – self-awareness. It helps every leader have the impact they want to have, not just on their team members, or organizations, but on the world.

That is a leader worth following.

Please visit us at www.assessmentsinternationalinc.com to register to complete your own 360 assessment or contact kblix@assessmentsinternationalinc.com for assistance.