Robert C. Satterwhite, PhD, is a Partner at the executive search firm Odgers Berndtson and Head of the Leadership Advisory Practice.
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A CEO who was new to the role spent much of his time editing and signing off on his staff’s memos, emails and other communications. Within months, his team began turning over.
A first-time CFO continued to perform the tasks of her previous controller role, failing to handle her new duties and undermining the new controller. Six months later, she was let go.
A newly hired company president told his new leadership team, “It’s going to take a long time for me to trust you.” His message struck the wrong chord, and his team quickly became defensive, disengaged and disgruntled.
Each of these senior leaders had one thing in common: poor self-awareness.
A lack of self-awareness can prove a major stumbling block to becoming a successful leader. By understanding why it's critical to strong leadership, the barriers that get in the way and how to remove those obstacles, leaders can transform into high performers.
Without Awareness, There Is No Change
Often, an employee earns their first leadership role through tactical execution. But in many cases, the skills that got them promoted won’t equip them to succeed in a role that's more strategic and requires delegating to and empowering a team. To succeed, these new leaders need to change—and that begins with self-awareness.
For people to change, they first need to be made aware that change is needed. Then they must be willing and motivated to change. Finally, they need to behave and perform in ways that activate and maintain the change over time. But if the first step never happens, change won’t occur.
In the case of the alienating president, he was unaware that his words could affect his team negatively. Though his intent was on target—encouraging members to prove they belonged on his team—his delivery got in the way. Without understanding how your words and actions impact your direct reports, your peers and other stakeholders, it will be difficult to perform as effectively as you could.
Barriers To Self-Awareness Are Real
As a leader, various obstacles can stand in your way when developing the self-awareness needed to do your job well. For example, if you've been continually promoted into positions of increasing responsibility, you may have gained a skewed sense of accomplishment. Because your past experiences have supported success, you may believe you don't need to change your approach to be a strong leader. But remember: the skills that earned you a promotion aren’t necessarily the skills required to succeed at the next level.
Another barrier to self-awareness is the lack of a growth mindset. People with a growth mindset will solicit feedback about their behaviors so they know what and how they need to improve. Those with a fixed mindset aren’t focused on self-improvement, so they don’t seek input. Worse, they might refuse to engage in activities that can yield useful insights.
When you fail to develop self-awareness, the consequences reverberate across the organization. For example, if you don’t recognize that you're not open to contradictory viewpoints, your team and peers will stop sharing information or suggesting new ideas. Worse, your direct reports might begin to model this flawed behavior. Or, if your approach to leadership is prescriptive and controlling, your team may stop taking the initiative or applying creative thinking. Over time, their skills will stagnate, and the highest performers will become frustrated and leave.
How Leaders Can Improve Self-Awareness
We all have opportunities to gain self-awareness through lessons learned, both professionally and personally. However, self-awareness doesn’t always develop naturally. When struggling to recognize your behaviors and tendencies, or how they impact others, the following steps can help.
• Pose the right questions. I advise all leaders to periodically ask their peers and direct reports three questions: What do I need to start doing to help you succeed? What do I need to stop doing? And what do I need to continue doing? Aside from the benefit of creating psychological safety, these questions provide a window into whether you're meeting the needs of various stakeholders. To make this truly work, however, you must approach these interactions with curiosity rather than defensiveness.
• Take a 360-degree assessment. This assessment solicits feedback from your key stakeholders (manager, direct reports and peers) and requires self-assessment. By comparing how you rated yourself to feedback up, down and across, the results can help you become more aware of your leadership style and how it affects those around you. The latter is especially important since some leaders are aware of how they operate but don’t necessarily understand the implications of their words and actions.
• Employ an executive coach. Whether you use a 360-degree assessment or another approach, the real value comes from turning the results into actionable steps for improving self-awareness and performance on the job. An experienced coach may help you develop and implement an action plan for professional development. With their support, you can use improved self-awareness to create a foundation for experimenting and exhibiting new behaviors.
Of course, there's no ideal leadership profile that will guarantee success—in part because each role and situation is unique. For example, if you’re asked to head up a team of junior-level employees, getting into the details of their roles might be helpful and necessary as a leader. But if you’re managing a group of highly experienced and capable employees, they might bristle if it seems like you're trying to micromanage them.
The point isn’t to prescribe any single way of behaving. It’s to gain awareness of how you show up as a leader and how that impacts those around you. Through better self-awareness, you gain an understanding of whether any of your behaviors are problematic and the insight to effect positive change.
Every leader has a mix of natural tendencies—some that prove useful on the job and others that hold them back from performing optimally. By becoming more self-aware, you can become a growth-minded professional who overcomes obstacles and develops into an exceptional leader.
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