The Leadership Superpower: Self-Awareness
Know Yourself, Lead Better
What makes a truly great leader? While many things matter, one skill stands out: being self-aware.
Daniel Goleman, who helped us all understand emotional intelligence back in the 1990s, put it simply:
"Without it, a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind, and an endless supply of smart ideas, but they still won't make a great leader."
We've seen this play out time and again across our programmes in QuoLux™. Just recently, our LEAD™ Cohort 24 delegates finished their Shadowing experiences and got feedback from their colleagues at work. Their stories show just how much knowing yourself better can change how you lead.
Why Knowing Yourself Matters in Leadership
The proof is in the pudding when it comes to self-awareness at work:
Better business results: Companies with leaders who have greater self-awareness do better with profits and keep their people longer.
More trust: Teams trust leaders who own up to their mistakes and talk openly about what they're good at and what they need to work on.
Smarter choices: Leaders who understand their own thinking make better decisions because they can spot when feelings or old habits might be clouding their judgment.
Real influence: Our LEAD™ Cohort 24 members are learning through their recent feedback sessions that understanding how others see you (versus how you think you come across) can be a game-changer.
Self-awareness is simply "noticing your thoughts and feelings and how they shape what you do, what you like, and how you react." Sounds easy, right? But research by Tasha Eurich shows something surprising: while 95% of people think they know themselves well, only about 10-15% actually do when properly tested.
This gap isn't just a problem – it's also a huge chance to get ahead of the competition by working on something most people miss.
Learning from LEAD™ Cohort 24: Three Ways to Understand Yourself Better
Our current LEAD™ Cohort 24 delegates are at an exciting point in their leadership journeys. They've just finished their Shadowing experiences and have received feedback from their work colleagues. Their stories show us three simple but powerful ways to build self-awareness:
1. Take Time to Think About Your Leadership
The best leaders make time to stop and think about how they're doing. This isn't just daydreaming, it's asking yourself real questions:
- Ask yourself specific questions:
- What went well today?
- What could I improve on?
- How did I help my team towards achieving their goals?
- Make it a habit: Many of our LEAD™ delegates set aside regular time to think - some write in a journal daily, others do a weekly check-in with themselves.
- Try different viewpoints: Practice seeing a situation through your team members' eyes to get a fresh look.
This kind of thinking creates a foundation for getting better as a leader.
2. Understand Your Feelings: The Leadership Thermostat
Our feelings have a huge impact on how we lead, but often we don't even notice them. LEAD™ delegates learn to tune into their emotions by:
- Spotting triggers: Noticing which situations, people, or problems always seem to push your buttons.
- Listening to your body: Recognising when your heart beats faster, your muscles tense up, or your breathing changes - these are often the first signs that emotions are kicking in.
- Building a toolbox of responses: Finding different ways to handle tough situations instead of always reacting the same way.
- Having bounce-back strategies: Knowing how to reset after an emotional moment.
As one LEAD™ Cohort 24 member put it, "Now I can catch myself and choose how to respond instead of just reacting."
3. Learn by Watching and Being Watched: The Shadowing Magic
The Shadowing part of our LEAD™ programme offers insights you can't get any other way. Unlike just getting written feedback, shadowing creates real learning because:
- Everyone takes turns: Each person shadows and gets shadowed by their trusted peers on the programme, creating a "we're all in this together" feeling that helps everyone learn more.
- You see leadership in real life: Watching fellow leaders handle real challenges in their own businesses teaches you things no book or theory can.
- You get specific feedback: Instead of general comments, you hear about exact moments and actions that worked or didn't work.
- You see different styles in action: Watching how other leaders approach problems gives you new ideas to try.
When we add this to the 360-Feedback and the one-to-one coaching sessions, it turbocharges self-awareness and helps leaders improve much faster.
From Knowing Yourself to Leading Better
The real value of self-awareness isn't just knowledge, it's about changing how you lead. As our delegates develop their personal growth plans, they show how developing your self-awareness leads to becoming a better leader.
The journey usually goes like this:
1. Spotting patterns: Noticing how you typically think, feel, and act
2. Accepting what you find: Acknowledging both strengths and weak spots without being too hard on yourself
3. Trying new approaches: Testing different ways of doing things based on what you've learned
4. Making successful changes stick: Working new behaviours into your leadership style
5. Keeping the growth going: Using self-awareness to keep getting better
As Emma Griffiths, CEO of FOWA said from her LEAD™ journey, "You think you know business and yourself within the business, but you really don’t. What are you hiding from? This programme will take you to depths of understanding and expertise you couldn’t have imagined were comfortably possible to achieve."
Start Building Your Self-Awareness Today
While programmes like LEAD™ offer a guided path, anyone can start getting to know themselves better as a leader right now:
- Link thinking to daily habits: Attach a quick moment of reflection to something you already do every day, like your morning coffee
- Ask for honest feedback: Talk to people at different levels in your company about how they see your leadership
- Write things down: Keep simple notes about what works well and what doesn't in your leadership
- Find a thinking buddy: Pick a trusted peer who will tell you the truth about how they see you leading
- Be fully present: Try to really pay attention during meetings and conversations instead of letting your mind wander or trying to multitask
Ready to Take Your Leadership Further?
Getting to know yourself better as a leader never really ends - it's something the best leaders keep working on. By taking time to think, asking for feedback and staying open to growing, today's leaders set themselves and their teams up for success.
At QuoLux™, we help create the conditions for leaders to grow and improve. Whether through our LEAD™ programme for senior leaders or LEADlight for up-and-coming managers and supervisors, we offer practical ways to become more effective.
To chat about how our programmes might help you, contact us today to set up a conversation with one of our friendly team members.
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