Understand Yourself Better. Lead Others Better.
Have you ever overestimated your ability? I have. I've committed to projects and timelines but later wondered how I could be so off in the first place. It has taken me more than a few years to realize that my point of view is not always the best. Evidence suggests that poor-performing businesses have 20% more leaders with blind spots than high-performing businesses. A lack of self-awareness is hazardous to your career and organization's success. Feedback is the most effective way to gain awareness of hidden strengths and blind spots. However, more is not necessarily better. With a little effort, you can understand yourself better – and not regret it later – by keeping these three qualities in mind that differentiate between useful and useless feedback.
Why self-awareness matters in leadership
To know yourself means that you can see yourself objectively, you are aware of similarities and differences from others, and you understand the perspective from which you see others and the world.
"To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom." Socrates
Leadership is a relationship, and it is vital to know what others think. If you only consider your perspective, you have an incomplete picture.
Like trying to navigate a ship on the open seas without a sextant or GPS, lacking self-awareness limits a leader’s ability to realize professional and personal goals. Self-aware leaders are not naive about their habits and are able to develop better habits.
The importance of self-awareness is not new. However, a recent study of 486 companies demonstrated that the most self-aware leaders populate the best organizations. Poor-performing businesses had 20% more leaders with blind spots than high-performing businesses.
Additional studies have linked greater self-awareness with:
improved leadership relationships
self-control
better decision-making
In today's increasingly complex and culturally diverse workplace, leaders who are able to perceive, assess, and regulate their own and others' emotions accurately can better leverage diversity and create team cohesion.
Evidence also suggests that leaders with a lack of self-awareness are more likely to be unable to regulate their emotions and behaviors effectively, contributing to poor physical health, work performance, and social interactions.
The difference between useful and useless feedback
The difference between useful and useless feedback is its reliability, validity, and fairness.
Key 1: Feedback Reliability
Reliable feedback has a high probability that the same actions lead to the same feedback in the future. When feedback lacks reliability, it creates confusion and can slow your development. Reliability is important because it helps reveal key themes for improvement.
Reliability helps you focus, especially when using structured feedback tools like 360 surveys that increase the amount of feedback you receive. It may be tempting to try to put development plans in place for every piece of feedback, but you will see the most growth in building better habits when you pick one small change and then gradually improve.
Key 2: Feedback Validity
Feedback based on a deep understanding is most valid. Validity relates to the extent to which the feedback takes into consideration the subject matter expertise of the topic, your situation, and the context.
The validity of the feedback is crucial because it directly affects the quality of any insights or conclusions that you can draw. When you use feedback that is inaccurate or incomplete, the conclusions you make will be unreliable and potentially misleading. Poor validity can lead to faulty decision-making, inaccurate predictions, and, ultimately, wasted time and resources.
Key 3: Feedback Fairness
Feedback bias happens when personal experiences shape the feedback. We all have bias, and likewise, all forms of feedback have some degree of bias. The greater the bias, the less useful and fair the feedback. I like asking my mom for feedback, but I must realize that she has a vested interest in being my mom. Likewise, the higher you ascend within your organization, the more challenging it becomes to receive fair feedback.
When you receive feedback, it is important to test it for reliability, validity, and fairness. Ask yourself:
How consistent and dependable is the feedback?
How logical is the feedback and factually informed is the source of the feedback?
How impartial and free from bias is the feedback?
Rather than responding with a yes or no, score each question using a scale of one to ten. A rating of one is not at all, and ten is to a great extent. To become more self-aware, it is best to get curious, embrace the variability of feedback as a path to improvement, take the valuable parts of the feedback, and disregard the rest.
“Look outside, and you will see yourself. Look inside, and you will find yourself.” Drew Gerald
Discover Your Leadership Habits
“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It’s lethal.” Paolo Coelho
The greatest threat to your career and business success is the routine practices performed automatically in daily life. My hypothesis is that leadership habits are life-changing.
It is easy to get the need for better habits in theory, but in practice still fall into unintentional patterns and accidental habits.
We don’t set out to develop bad habits.
We don’t need to just want it more.
While you may be aware of some leadership habits, there are likely others that you are completely unaware of - those accidental habits that go unnoticed but significantly impact your leadership effectiveness.
Part of the answer is greater awareness of proven principles. That is why I wrote Life-Changing Leadership Habits: 10 Proven Principles That Will Elevate People, Profit, and Purpose. If you want access to the latest research and practical tools to help you get better every day, pick up your ebook or print copy on Amazon or anywhere you buy books.
To help you uncover these life-changing leadership habits, I've created the leadership accidental habit assessment (AHA). By taking this free survey, you'll gain valuable insights into your leadership and identify areas for improvement.
Take the assessment now and start your journey to becoming a more effective and self-aware leader.
What is your real self-awareness challenge?
References
Bratton, V., Dodd, N., & Brown, F. (2011). The impact of emotional intelligence on the accuracy of self-awareness and leadership performance. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 32(2), 127-149.
Brickhouse, Thomas C.; Smith, Nicholas D. (1994). Plato's Socrates. Oxford University Press.
Doolittle, J. (2023). Life-Changing Leadership Habits: 10 Proven Principles That Will Elevate People, Profit and Purpose. Organizational Talent Consulting.
Goldstein, G., Allen, D. N., & Deluca, J. (2019). Handbook of psychological assessment. Elsevier Science & Technology.
Oltmanns, T., Gleason, M., Klonsky, E., & Turkheimer, E. (2005). Meta-perception for pathological personality traits: Do we know when others think that we are difficult? Consciousness and Cognition, 14(4), 739-751.
Pekaar, K., Bakker, A. B., van der Linden, D., & Born, M. (2018). Self- and other-focused emotional intelligence: Development and validation of the Rotterdam emotional intelligence scale (REIS). Personality and Individual Differences, 120, 222-233.
Wilson, T., & Gilbert, D. (2005). Affective forecasting: Knowing what to want. Current Directions in Psychological Science: A Journal of the American Psychological Society, 14(3), 131-134.
Zes, D., & Landis, D. (2013). A better return on self-awareness. Korn Ferry Institute.
