The Importance of Self-Awareness in Business

Self-awareness is a skill that many would say they have and practice, but statistically, very few people are actually self-aware. A study by Hay Group determined that women in leadership positions, in general, have more self-awareness than their male counterparts, however, the numbers were disturbingly low across the board. The study indicated that for those in executive leadership positions, 19 percent of women displayed high levels of self-awareness while only 4 percent of men did.  Being a self-aware leader can be a game-changer for business operations, and the numbers indicate that there is a lot of work to do.

What Does Self-Awareness Mean?

According to my good friend, Merriam-Webster, self-awareness is an awareness of one's own personality or individuality. I’d argue, however, that there is more to it than that. To be self-aware means to not only have awareness of your own personality but how your natural tendencies, habits, and behaviors affect those around you; in this case, referring to those in your workplace.

Harvard Business Review explains that there are two types of self-awareness, internal and external which are further described in the graphic on the right. For example, it explains that someone could internally be very self-aware, but they don’t ever challenge their own opinions or views, which then can be destructive to their outside relationships. People in this personality type often come across as being very opinionated but are also incredibly convicted in their opinion. They are people that are very unlikely to listen and consider others' opinions if they think they know the best way to do it. The chart also explains that we can’t truly realize the benefits of self-awareness unless we are able to be both internally and externally aware. 

Be Mindful of Your Strengths & Weaknesses 

Knowing and being mindful of your strengths and weaknesses is a good place to start on your journey to self-awareness. As mentioned above, however, it’s important to consider not only what those strengths and weaknesses are, but how they impact those you interact with. Sometimes it can be hard to access your own strengths and weaknesses. As a partner and Certified talent optimization consultant with Predictive Index, I can tell you that the software provides a practical application tool you can integrate into your business structure to increase self-awareness instead of a one-and-done assessment tool. If you want to try to do a personal assessment, here are some good things to try: 

• Do a personal SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) assessment

• Think about triggers that illicit undesirable behaviors

• Think about tendencies when in times of stress

• Think about recent accomplishments, what traits helped you achieve those

• Ask co-worker(s) for their opinion

All of these are good ways to start this process. One of my favorite activities to do with teams to help provide this type of feedback AND help teams practice giving constructive feedback is my One-and-One exercise. Each team member is instructed to write down one behavior that if continued could derail progress for the organization, and one behavior that if continued could take the organization to the next level. They do this for each of the members of the team. Then we take turns going around and giving that feedback. Every time I have done this there have been trends in the desired and undesired behaviors that people weren’t aware everyone else had picked up on.  

Admit Mistakes

A champion of self-awareness is owning up to your mistakes. This is something that is less than desirable for anyone because no one wants to admit when we’re screwed something up. But having the ability, especially as a leader, to admit when you’ve done something wrong not only demonstrates self-awareness but also sets the stage for others to own up when they’ve done something wrong knowing there will not be retaliation. This combined behavior helps establish organization accountability. No one likes the excuse maker… own it, apologize, and fix it! 

This last part is the most important when it comes to admitting your mistakes. It’s not enough just to acknowledge that you’ve made the mistake, it’s using that mistake to change behavior so that you make sure the mistake doesn’t happen again. That is where the true self-awareness comes into action because it should come with the realization of how your mistake impacted another team member. It’s not enough to say, “Oops I didn’t get you that thing” and then do the same thing a week later. That shows a complete lack of self-awareness and quite frankly a lack of empathy and consideration for others. 

Don’t Let Experience Blur Your Self-Awareness

Especially once you’re in an executive leadership position, you’ve had your fair share of stumbling blocks and learning lessons. You’ve likely learned a lot of things the hard way. While it’s natural to want to help those coming behind us, it’s important to be careful that we don’t let our experience and how we handled it become the standard. Something that worked for us is not necessarily going to be the best solution for someone else. 

Our experience also has a tendency to shape what we believe to be our strengths and weaknesses as a leader. I can’t remember where I read the study, but there was a study done that demonstrated the vast majority of senior-level leaders significantly overvalued their skills as they related to emotional self-awareness, empathy, trustworthiness, and leadership performance. The only way to truly become more self-aware and not lose touch with these incredibly important leadership skills is to continuously seek out that difficult feedback, and when you get it accept it graciously and use it to make changes in the future. 

A journey of self-awareness can be a difficult journey to take alone. I’d love to chat if you’re interested in learning more about your individual or organizational self-awareness and how fostering that environment can provide the desired results to your business strategy. If you’re interested in learning more about Predictive Index I’d love to chat about that as well. You can also follow me on Facebook or LinkedIn, or sign up for my newsletter in the footer for more.