Self Awareness in Leadership is Crucial!

We started out last time by looking at some stats Travis Bradberry shared detailing how uncommon true self awareness really is in basically any role. Since our focus here is really on leadership, let’s dial in on that. I mean, if someone is in a leadership role, aren’t they far more likely to have developed a stronger level of self awareness?

Maybe not…

In the first chapter of John Maxwell’s newest book, The Self Aware Leader, he quotes Bishop Fulton J. Sheen as saying “Civilization is always in danger when those who have never learned to obey are given the right to command. Only a leader who has followed well knows how to lead well.” That sure makes me think of more than a few specific names where this applies far too much! I’m guessing you can too, even without considering Washington DC…

So how crucial is self awareness for each of us with regards to the teams we lead? What kind of impact are we having on the people we’re responsible for leading if we’re lacking in the self awareness department?

An article from MITSloan Management Review called How to Become a Better Leader shared that “A survey of 75 members of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council rated self-awareness as the most important capability for leaders to develop.” When it comes to employee retention alone, this is a huge deal! In The Self Aware Leader, John makes a statement I first heard him share a decade or so ago stating that “Some sources estimate that as many as 65% of people leaving companies do so because of their managers… The ‘company’ doesn’t do anything negative to them. People do. Sometimes coworkers cause the problems that prompt people to leave. But often the people who alienate employees are their direct supervisors.”

If that’s the only negative impact we have by lacking self awareness as a leader, it could already be costing our organization hundreds of thousands of dollars in turnover costs! But that’s clearly not the only issue it causes… 

The same MITSloan article went on to say that “Executives need to know where their natural inclinations lie in order to boost them or compensate for them.” Fair enough, Wes… How do I get really dialed in on where my natural inclinations lie? 

Statements like that frustrate me more than they help me. It’s almost like we just know those things. Far too often, articles like that reference an issue and may even go as far as to suggest there’s a simple solution - but I’ve rarely seen that solution provided so I’m doing exactly that right now! The most practical tool I’ve ever found for learning how to understand my natural inclinations AND applying that information to how I interact with the people around has been the DISC Model of Human Behavior; starting with a scientifically validated DISC assessment like I mentioned before then working through the results with someone who trained in how to actually build those results into my daily routine. Once I had that foundational understanding, I was also able to apply it to each of the components of emotional intelligence - which Travis Bradberry says “accounts for 58% of performance in all types of jobs.”

Next time we’ll take a quick look at a few places where a lack of self awareness in leadership roles is likely costing our organizations big bucks. After that, we’ll start working through strategies for fixing those issues. Until then, you’re welcome to reach out directly if you’re interested in learning more about how something as simple as learning how to apply the DISC Model of Human Behavior can make such an impact…