By Kelley Reynard
Self-awareness is the capacity to have a clear perception of your personality including strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivations, and emotions. It is a competency being discussed in organisations today as one of the attributes of Emotional Intelligence and an important factor in achieving success. Having self-awareness allows you to reflect on how your thoughts and emotions guide and impact the interpersonal interactions you have with others. Having a high level of self-awareness and understanding of how your emotions and thoughts impact your actions and the behaviours of those around you, is widely viewed one of the most valuable capabilities to have as a leader.
Chris Musselwhite, President and CEO of Discovery Learning, puts forth that leaders with a high level of self-awareness are honest with themselves and their peers, and take responsibility for what they don’t know instead of pretending to know everything all of the time. Communicating the fact that they have made a mistake, or are wrong about a certain issue, can boost a leader’s credibility and net the trust of others. When colleagues see that a leader is modelling to the organisation that it’s ok to admit that they don’t always have the answers, the benefits to the organisation can be tremendous. This role modelling behaviour characterises the organisation as agile and innovative and shows that the organisation prides itself on continuous learning; two features Musselwhite attributes to high performing organisations.
When a person has a high level of self-awareness, they acknowledge their strengths and continue to build on these. They also recognise the areas of their behaviour that require further development and will find ways to improve upon these. Although it may seem as though some people have a natural inclination and ability to understand their own and others’ emotions, self-awareness is actually something that can be enhanced and developed by everyone. One of the foremost characteristics of an individual with a high level of self-awareness is the ability to reflect on their thoughts, behaviours, and the day’s events. Musselwhite recognises that this can often be the most challenging part of the process in building and developing self-awareness.
However, one of the first and most honest ways to gain feedback is a through a 360-degree multi-rater assessment. This tool allows for peers, superiors, and subordinates to anonymously provide feedback about a person’s performance and all aspects of their behaviour. In addition, for those who don’t have access to a 360 assessment, a more informal way to receive feedback and begin to increase a leader’s level of self-awareness would be to ask others directly. Asking colleagues what their strengths are will give them confidence in the things they are already good at, as well as highlight the areas they can continue to build upon. Even asking friends and relatives for feedback on their strengths and development areas can provide a person with a detailed profile of their abilities and skills to further build on and develop.
Many leaders agree on the importance of having self-awareness and the ability to reflect on their thoughts, actions, conversations with others. When a leader is self-aware, they take responsibility for what they don’t know, openly admit that they still have plenty to learn, and turn mistakes into learning opportunities. This capability is starting to form the basis of emerging leadership programs today, and is something Musselwhite attributes to being the backbone of a successful organisation.
To continue reading about the notion of self-awareness in addition to Musselwhite’s elaboration on the type of questions to ask when gaining informal feedback, please click the following link http://www.inc.com/resources/leadership/articles/20071001/musselwhite.html