Back to Top

What is Self-Awareness

Self awareness is an important area for managerial and leadership effectiveness.

I learned this myself, the hard way many years ago. After undergoing my own management journey, I have, since then, worked with many managers and leaders to help them increase their self-awareness.

For people who care about their careers and about the people working with them, self awareness is critical to their managerial and leadership effectiveness. In fact, the journey to effective management and leadership begins with self-awareness.

When managers and leaders fail to obtain self awareness, they never reach their full potential.

Sadly, everyday, many otherwise smart people fail as managers and leaders because they lack self-awareness.

So, what is self awareness?

In an article for the Journal of Psychology, Anna Sutton defined self awareness as the following:

Self-awareness can be broadly defined as the extent to which people are consciously aware of their internal states and their interactions or relationships with others

Thus, self-awareness is a measurement of how well we understand what is happening within us internally (our emotional state, attitude, beliefs, etc.) and how these factors affect our interactions and relations with others.

With this understanding of what self-awareness means, it’s no secret why self-awareness is important to effective leadership. Self-awareness can be a two-edged sword, however. While it is a great gift (when we decide to accept it), it can also initially be uncomfortable.

(It’s kind of hard to accept that the heads of other people that we have been turning around have not been looks of admiration or respect for how well we are dressed. Instead, they’ve been wondering why we have no idea that we are walking around in public with no clothes on!)

Back to Top

Why is Self Awareness Important

Managers who lack self-awareness ultimately harm their own leadership effectiveness.

This harm occurs because managers are unable to sustain effective working relationships with the stakeholders that are critical to their success — their employees, peers, boss, and senior leadership.

The basic self awareness failing that these managers have is a lack an understanding of their own behavior and how this impacts their critical stakeholders. Over time, the inability of these managers to see their own faults and make the necessary adjustments in their working style erodes their leadership credibility in the organization.

As I’ve worked with managers and leaders, I can see them have an aha moment as they realize that they have unknowingly been contributing to their poor interpersonal relationships with others. For some managers, the aha moment is not a big deal. They can just make some small adjustments to their leadership and communication styles to have better working relationships with others.

For other managers, however, the aha moment is a big deal! The problems they created will not be quickly fixed often because of organizational history that goes back awhile. These managers have the following troubling thoughts:

1. I’ve made some mistakes as a manager, and I’m a major contributor to the poor interpersonal relationships that I have with some people. Can I even repair the damage to these relationships?

2. What should I do first?

3. If I can repair the damage, how can I do it?

Back to Top

How to Fix a Damaged Working Relationship

Can I even repair the damage to these relationships? 

Surprisingly, most of the time you can!

Employees, peers, and bosses are often forgiving when they see you are taking responsibility for your own shortcomings and committing yourself to improving your working relationships with them. This is especially true when your colleagues accept that your prior behavior came from a lack of  knowledge about leadership, management, or communication. Most will welcome the new change in you and respect you for taking personal responsibility to improve.

What should I do first?

The first step to addressing this real-world challenge that you’ve created is to leverage self-awareness correctly.

Don’t beat yourself up! Instead pick yourself up!

As the saying goes: Don’t cry over spilled milk!

You’ve made the mistakes already. Accept responsibility and focus on what you can do to fix the situation.

If I can repair the damage, how can I do it? 

There’s no such thing as the perfect manager.

That is why management is a journey and not a destination!

We all have our shortcomings. It’s what we do about them that matters.

Make the needed changes. (If you do not know how, take a seminar, get a coach, or take a behavioral assessment.)

It can also help to strategically let people know that you are purposely changing.  For example, if you’ve learned that your communication style is too blunt, you can begin your remarks in a meeting with your wary peers with something like the following:

I’m working on being more diplomatic so let me explain my thoughts on our project this way . . .

If you’ve taken a management seminar or a behavioral assessment, you can casually drop that information in a conversation. Disclosing the reasons for a change in your behavior gives people a context to understand why you are acting differently.

Finally, realize that whenever you change your behavior and how you communicate with others, you should expect that some people will at first be suspicious of you. Just be patient and consistent in your new way of interacting and communicating with others. As you do this, you will build trust as they see that the changes in your leadership style are real.

Back to Top

Conclusion: Know Thyself

The philosopher Socrates was a supporter of the value of individuals making the effort to understand themselves. His adoption of the Greek saying — Know Thyself  — powerfully summarizes what it means to be self aware.

In the workplace, self aware managers know the following three things:

1. They know what they value and what they don’t value
2. They know how their interpersonal style impacts others
3. They know how to adapt their interpersonal style to work effectively with others

Self awareness is the first step on the path to leadership that is both effective and sustainable.

Featured image courtesy of Imagerymajestic/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net.