Recently I gave a talk at a leadership conference (a different one than I mentioned before) and I thought I would share the ideas here as well. The talk was about self-awareness in leadership.
But before we get into the idea of self-awareness, let’s first talk about leadership.
Leadership
What people typically think is leadership isn’t actually leadership. People tend to talk about specific people such as presidents or specific leaders that they have had in their personal lives. But individual leaders aren’t the whole story. Leaders can’t lead without a few other things in the leadership equation. Let’s pick apart the idea of leadership a bit more to distinguish why it isn’t just the leader.
“Leadership is ‘a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.’” (Northouse, 2016, p. 3)
The above definition from Peter Northouse, is a good one because it highlights that there are other people, such as followers involved in the leadership process. And that there are circumstances of the situation that impact both the followers and the leader. Those three intersect to create the process that is leadership that is happening in the moment. Additionally, those relationships change over time as the followers, leader, and situation all change and adapt to each other.
In other words, leadership is more like Edwin Hollander’s (1978) interactional framework (see figure below). [side note: I had the pleasure of studying with Dr. Hollander back in graduate school, he was one of the nicest and smartest people I’ve ever met.]
Image credit: Brian, adapted from Hollander (1978).
Leadership can be simply described in this model as the intersection of three major components: the leader, followers, and the situation.
The leader is a person. And as such has individual values, skills, abilities, and traits like anyone else.
Followers are also people who have individual values, skills, abilities, and traits.
And the situation also has its own unique circumstances.
Let’s focus for a minute on the people in this equation. Do people always know everything about themselves?
The answer is no. That is the whole idea of the unconscious or blind spots. There are parts about us that are hidden even to ourselves. And like every human being, we can’t know everything. That doesn’t mean that we can’t become aware of them, but we must discover them. But how do we do that?
The short answer is self-awareness.
Self-awareness
Self-awareness. Let’s examine that idea a bit more.
There are many different definitions of self-awareness, which has also sometimes been thought of as self-consciousness. But we are going to use the term self-awareness as that is the more modern term and one that is much more widely accepted in the work world.
In in 2022, Julia Carden, Rebecca Jones, and Jonathan Passmore conducted a review of the self-awareness literature. From an initial set of journal articles totaling over 440,000 articles with the terms self-awareness and self-consciousness, they narrowed the list down to 144 articles that purely defined self-awareness.
This is the overall definition that they arrived at by combining those 144 is:
“Self-awareness consists of a range of components, which can be developed through focus, evaluation and feedback, and provides an individual with an awareness of their internal state (emotions, cognitions, physiological responses), that drives their behaviors (beliefs, values and motivations) and an awareness of how this impacts and influences others” (Carden, Jones, and Passmore, 2022, p. 164).
It’s pretty dense as you can see, but there are some key components that I’ve bolded above, and we will examine in a bit more detail.
First, in a broad sense, there are two categories of self-awareness: intrapersonal and interpersonal.
- Intrapersonal refers to the inner self that others can’t see about us.
- Interpersonal refers to the self-knowledge that we gain from our social interactions. It is what others see about us and build their ideas about us.
Those two broad categories then break down into 7 specific components.
Intrapersonal
- Beliefs and values
- Internal mental state (feelings and emotions as well as thoughts and cognitions)
- Physical Sensations
- Personality Traits
- Motivations
Interpersonal
6) Behaviors
7) Perceptions by others
These components fit really well into the interactional framework of leadership anywhere there are people (leader and followers). Which is how self-awareness fits into leadership.
Gaining self-awareness as a leader
So, I’m guessing that most of you are here not because you wanted to learn definitions, but wanted to learn the how to gain self-awareness as a leader or want to take some practical knowledge back to your organizations to help others gain self-awareness.
There are many ways to gain self-awareness, but we are only going to examine four here:
- Assessment
- Coaching
- Mentorship
- Mindfulness
Assessment
Assessment is a fancy term that basically means taking some sort of test to reveal something about yourself. Assessment can include things such as a personality test, a skills or ability test, emotional intelligence test, or a leadership assessment center that combines a few sets of tests. In general, an assessment is an external tool that helps you learn more about yourself. It might be self-report and you can learn on your own, or you might have an expert help you interpret it, such as with the Clifton Strengths finder.
Who here has taken some sort of assessment before to help gain knowledge about themselves? What did you learn? How did you apply it to your leadership?
I have taken a bunch of leadership assessments over the years.
I regularly take some version of the MBTI, which is a personality test. Anyone want to take a guess at my personality type?
Image credit: Humanmetrics.com
One of the things that I learned early on about myself was that I was an introvert, but knowing that leaders need to interact with others, I worked on my interpersonal skills to help me succeed.
More recently, I took the Clifton Strengths finder and found out that my main strength is adaptability. So, I leverage that in my leadership, but I also used the idea to develop my leadership philosophy so that I would have a touchstone to guide me as I have to make tough decisions.
Leadership Coaching
Leadership coaching is nothing new. All good leaders have sought external advice throughout the ages. But leadership coaching has become more formal and normalized recently.
There are certifications and the like to make sure that you as leader are getting sound advice from practitioners who know the science of excelling at leadership.
I have been coaching for a long time both with students as well as clients. The basic premise is finding out what the leader needs to work on and help them devise a strategy for growth in that area. As a coach, I use a form of root cause analysis called the “5 Whys”. Coaching can often be paired with assessments, which can be used to start conversations about what a person really needs to help them grow. Coaching is also sometimes paired with what is known as a leadership development plan, which is an idea we will discuss here in a bit.
Mentoring
Let me ask you this: what is mentorship?
How is it different from coaching?
The main difference is that a mentorship relationship is more reciprocal than a coaching one. In other words, it is more like a two-way street where both people are learning from the other. Typically, one person is more senior than the other, but the learning is not limited to one person as you have in a coaching relationship.
Mentors can be informal or formal.
Formal mentorships are programs that are set up by organizations.
Informal mentorships are ones that happen more naturally, and basically are a professional friendship where advice is provided.
Informal ones typically are more effective because there is a motivation for both people to engage as they have natural trust and comradery.
That said, formal ones can work, if both people are willing to engage. Good formal ones often develop into informal ones after the specified time is up.
Something to remember about a formal one not working; you have other options. You can find an informal mentor to go along with your formal one, or you can request a new formal one.
What makes a mentorship work?
Active listening is one of the main keys. Active listening is a form of communication without building a response until the person is done speaking. Then clarifying what they said, then building your response.
“so, if I understand you…” Then responding after you truly understand what the other person said and truly building their ideas into your thoughts and response.
Mindfulness
What is mindfulness?
It means a lot of different things to a lot of people. But in general, it is about gaining self-awareness through yourself rather than something external like an assessment or a coach.
So, it pairs well with the other aspects we have been talking about as it is a self-reflection that doesn’t require anything external like an assessment or other people. It is another perspective. It’s not an open-ended reflection though, it is a self-reflection about how you fit into the moment.
Each one of the methods discussed here about is gaining a different perspective to help you grow as a leader.
So, what are some of the methods you can use to gain mindfulness?
- Journaling
- Meditation
- Observation of yourself
- Momentary pause.
This last one needs a bit more explanation. A momentary pause is stopping in the moment and questioning why you are doing something rather than just let it be rote or automatic. For example, catching yourself getting triggered and stopping to reflect on why that is happening. And if at all possible, changing your behavior to be better suited to being a leader in the moment.
Leading using self-awareness
So going back to the interactional leadership framework can you start to see how self-awareness fits in.
Looking at the diagram again, where do you see the potential for these ideas to fit in?
That’s right, it can fit in several places. Particularly in the spaces that involve humans. In other words, only the situation itself is where self-awareness isn’t a main component. That space would be more general or situational awareness, which is a whole other conversation.
Leadership Development Plan
Once you’ve gained self-awareness as a leader (or follower who is also part of the leadership process as we discussed at the beginning of this entry), you need to do something with it. The best way to make something useful from your self-awareness is to convert that awareness into action. One of my favorite ways to do so is to create leadership development plans.
In short, a leadership development plan is turning your newfound self-awareness of an attribute you want to improve or leverage in your leadership into a SMART goal. I’ve created a tool that will help you create your own leadership development plan that you can access for free.
References
Carden, J., Jones, R.J., & Passmore, J. (2022). Defining Self-Awareness in the Context of Adult Development: A Systematic Literature Review. Journal of Management Education, 46. 104-177.
Hollander, E.P. (1978). Leadership Dynamics. New York: Free Press.
Humanmetrics.com (2023). Jung Typology Test. https://www.humanmetrics.com/personality
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Washington, DC: Sage.