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Are you a self-aware leader?

Learning about yourself is a foundation for you to successfully work with other individuals, lead teams, and guide your organization to achieve its goals

By Steve Swavely, Ph.D

Building awareness can seem like a contradiction. If you are unaware of something, how can you suddenly see or sense it? Our answer at Truist Leadership Institute is held in this simple definition: Awareness is what you pay attention to. And unawareness is what you don’t pay attention to. This quiz breaks down the aspects of awareness and why paying attention at many levels is a critical tool for leaders. 

Which statement best summarizes what you know about how awareness relates to leadership?

A.   I know it’s an important skill to develop as a leader, but I’m not really sure exactly why or how to increase my awareness.

B.   I’ve been reading a lot about self-awareness from leadership experts for the last 10 years, and I’ve also used executive coaching and assessments to hone my own awareness.

C.   There’s no “I” in team. It’s important that I’m aware of what’s happening with my organization, our business, and our employees to be a better leader.

We hear answer A quite a lot. Most executives recognize awareness as a key competency, which is a shift from 15 years ago when we needed to convince them of its importance. Acknowledging that it is important is a great basis for learning why and learning how to increase your awareness as a leader.

Answer B is also a good starting place, and we teach that leaders can develop four levels of awareness: self-awareness, which is named in answer B; interpersonal awareness, which is awareness of other individuals; organizational awareness, which is awareness of culture and team engagement; and finally, strategic awareness, which is awareness of the enterprise’s vision, purpose, innovation, and creativity.

Answer C is another good starting place, because if a leader just adds self-awareness, they have all four levels of awareness identified as important. 

How self-aware are you?

A.   I have no idea. I’ve never really spent time evaluating it.

B.   I think I’m pretty aware in some ways, and maybe not very aware in others.

Again, answer A is really normal. By and large, few of us sit down and take the time to think, “How did I get to be the way I am?” But in part, self-awareness is beginning to understand the building of your personality — what you believe, what you value, what you think, what opinions you form, what emotions you feel in different situations.

And answer B can also be common for leaders. Picture three boxes, each for a different aspect of self-awareness. The first box is my thoughts. And that’s made up of my beliefs, motives, and values. The second box is my emotions. And those can be excitement, joy, and enthusiasm, or they can be anger, fear, and frustration. And then there’s a third box, which is my actions or my behaviors. In it are both things that people can see me do — like when I argue or I ask questions — and things only I know are happening, like my stomach churning or my heart beating fast.

A leader might have high self-awareness in one box, and lower self-awareness in the other two. For example, athletes have great awareness of their behaviors and their body but may be less aware of their thought and emotion boxes. A mathematics professor might be very aware of her thought box and less aware of her emotion and behavior boxes. Whether through one-on-one coaching or a small-group program with Truist Leadership Institute, we help leaders build self-awareness in all three boxes.

Why wouldn’t a leader build other levels of awareness first — awareness about their organization, their team, other individuals — then finally focus on self-awareness?

A.   Because self-awareness is the foundation.

B.   It actually doesn’t matter where you start.

C.   Um, I’m not sure. This is all pretty complex.

At the Leadership Institute, we use self-awareness as a foundation (answer A), but you’re never done building any layer of awareness, and you’re never done learning ways to apply those layers. So answer B isn’t wrong, either.

And yes, it is complex (answer C), because the challenges leaders face are complex. One of the things that we’re seeing in organizations today, that’s going to require great self-awareness, is that our organizations are becoming much more diverse. People with different life experiences and of different races make up organizations. It’s tough to lead a diverse team. But all the research says that’s where the most creative and most effective teams can be found. It takes a great leader with great self-awareness and great interpersonal awareness to be able to bring that team together into a collaborative effort and get everybody rowing in the same direction.