“Awareness is the greatest agent for change” ~ Suki Laniado Smith
“Leaders who focus on building both internal and external self-awareness…can learn to see themselves more clearly — and reap the many rewards that increased self-knowledge delivers” ~ Dr Tasha Eurich, HBR, January 2018
In January 2018, Harvard Business Review published an article by Dr Tasha Eurich titled: “What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It)”
Today a look at the question Tasha poses.
As my dear friend and mentor, Suki Laniado Smith, states with her concise wisdom:
“Awareness is the greatest agent for change.”
For Leaders, leadership starts with self-leadership, yet in my experience, few leaders are willing to truly look at themselves, and without that focus on self-awareness and then acting upon what they find, they are self-limiting their impact, for themselves, their people and the broader world.
This is why I am very clear on who I choose to work for. As my #BeMoreYou page notes and expands upon, I am looking for leaders to work with me to:
- Be Hungry
- Be Humble
- Be Brave
- Be Open
So, I love that Tasha has focussed on:
- What self-awareness is, and
- How to cultivate it.
First to her excellent two by two matrix, to the question “what self-awareness is”.
Naturally, all such “two by two” matrices are reductive to some extent, but this is one of the first I have seen along this theme and I find it highly valuable around self-awareness.
I’d say that most leaders who have had some success have elements of the “Introspector” or “Pleaser” types, fewer are “Aware”.
However, no matter how “Aware” one is (or thinks one is!), awareness is a journey, never a destination. There is always more to learn, hence be hungry, be humble, be brave, be open. Perhaps I’m selfish in my choice of clients, but there is nothing more fun for me than working to support a highly successful leader be more, to, as I put it, make an even greater dent in the universe.
Now, I also love that Tasha has gone to look at how one can cultivate one’s self-awareness.
Distilling to simplicity, that two by two matrix is a great start. Do two things with it for yourself, please. First, self-assess where you most clearly sit, ie choose a quadrant, honestly. Second, ask at least three people who know you well to do the same.
Again, “Awareness is the greatest agent for change”, and there is much value to be gained simply to have an awareness of where you feel you sit (and what that feels like), then also what others say (and what THAT feels like, as they may not align with your own assessment of self).
So, when you sit with those feelings, do you feel hungry to look to cultivate more self-awareness? Yes? Great, then read on. No? Then that is awareness in and of itself, and thanks for reading this far.
Let me distil down two key thoughts Dr Eurich makes in her article on how to further develop one’s self-awareness:
- Seek frequent critical feedback
- To do this, at source, you must first, as earlier noted, have the modesty to: Be Humble, Be Open, both of which are greatly accentuated if allied with the drive created by the other two leaders attributes of: Be Brave, Be Hungry
- Ask “What”, not “Why”
- Why is the most difficult question out there (ever had your four-year-old child ask you “why?” to a question? Naturally, and it lands as confrontational. When asked by someone looking to assess their own performance, it also lands as defensive. Instead, ask “what”, it will both create more open-ness from both questioner and respondent, as well a result far more often in productive and actionable responses.
In closing, how hungry are you? If this has piqued your interest, I’d love to chat with you about this, anytime, anywhere. I live to help kindle fires in people that can see them, by whatever path, make their full potential possible!