Self-Awareness in Leadership: How to Become Self-Aware
Are you self-aware? We naturally look outwards in our day-to-day life, fielding outside forces like workers, deadlines, and unexpected situations. However, many of us rarely take the opportunity to look inward.
Self-awareness is the ability to tune into your thoughts, feelings, and actions. It requires a presence and an honesty with one’s self that can’t be overstated. A Harvard Business Review 2018 article on “Managing Yourself” broke self-awareness into two different types:
Internal Self-Awareness: This is about clearly understanding your values, work-style, passions, and impact.
External Self-Awareness: This is focused on how others perceive you, and awareness of people’s perspectives on you.
Both are essential. Knowing yourself but not understanding how other people see you won’t get you far in the workplace. Harvard Business Review refers to people with this combination of awareness as “introspectors” - they suffer in the workplace as the crucial relationships necessary for success aren’t present.
Similarly, if you only ever work from how people see you, rather than who you are, you will never truly connect with the work that you are doing. People with this mixture of awareness can be thought of as “pleasers”.
It is only by knowing who you are and how people perceive you that you can be truly aware, and fully experience the genuine advantages of self-awareness.
Psychological Safety
Psychological safety is the feeling of being able to take risks and make mistakes without fear of negative consequences. We have an entire blog post on how to make a psychologically safe workspace, but in short, it boils down to empathy and listening Ideally, you want yourself and your colleagues to experience self-awareness, so they can harness the power
Psychological safety and self-awareness are inextricably linked. Without self-awareness, you limit how psychologically safe you can be in an environment. Without the trust that comes from knowing yourself internally and externally, you can’t ever feel truly psychologically safe. Similarly, if you don’t feel psychologically safe at work, then it becomes extremely difficult to search for, accept, and act upon feedback. Each lays the groundwork for the other.
Allow Yourself to Receive Feedback
How good are you at receiving feedback? Once you have a psychologically safe workspace, you must be prepared to encounter employee feedback. Some of it will be difficult to hear – but allowing feedback is critical to becoming truly aware in your organization and growing as a leader.
Introspection is important, and looking inwards is something I always encourage. However, introspection alone will not give you the self-awareness you deserve. You need a healthy mix of internal and external self-awareness. Learn to love feedback.
Get good at receiving feedback and encourage it in your organization. Create a space of vulnerability, and open multiple channels for thoughts, concerns, and complaints. Some people hate giving or receiving feedback face-to-face, so make sure there are ways to communicate beyond a Zoom meeting and that you’re checking in with your team members to understand how they would like to receive feedback. Similarly, many folks need that face-to-face interaction. By having multiple ways in which people can give and receive feedback, you are likely to get more honesty. And greater external self-awareness.
Harnessing the Power of Data
We cannot change what we do not measure. Uncharted Way places a huge emphasis on using data to inform our decisions, and how it can increase our awareness to previously impossible heights. Often, one of the first actions we take when consulting with a new client is undertaking a 360 Leadership Assessment. By doing this, we can get a huge influx of data, supporting our clients in becoming instantly more self-aware.
Subjects like self-awareness and psychological safety are often seen as “soft” subjects that are not as objective as other areas of the business. Many organizations overlook data when looking at something so subjective, like self-awareness. By integrating data into these areas of leadership, you can truly revolutionize how you approach them. Embrace a data-driven approach to leadership and allow data to inform your awareness. You won’t regret it.
You might be surprised at what you hear when you listen.
Achieving self-awareness in leadership is not just crucial for personal and professional growth—it's a superpower. By mastering both internal and external self-awareness, leaders can skillfully navigate their interactions and cultivate stronger relationships within the workplace. The harmony between psychological safety and self-awareness is profound, as each reinforces the other.
Embracing feedback and utilizing data-driven approaches, such as 360 Leadership Assessments, can significantly enhance self-awareness and ultimately lead to more effective leadership. By integrating these practices, leaders can fully experience the genuine advantages of self-awareness and create a more empathetic, responsive, and successful organization.
Meridith Marshall is the CEO and Founder of Uncharted Way and has seen firsthand how people and organizations can navigate the most difficult of circumstances with clarity and openness to improve employee experience and culture in their workplace. She is an industry-recognized expert in using a data-driven approach and is a therapist and certified Co-Active coach.