Improved Self-Awareness Can Make You a Better Leader

Know yourself; lead yourself

Know yourself to lead yourself and lead others

To lead others, we must first learn to lead ourselves.

How well do you know yourself?

Most leaders believe they know themselves much better than they actually do. That’s the problem with self-awareness — it has several benefits, but few people enjoy them.

Self-awareness has a more positive impact on your leadership ability than an MBA. Self-awareness is directly correlated with team performance, according to another study. A high level of self-awareness not only contributes to career success and effective leadership — it also improves your bottom line.

Yet self-awareness seems to be in short supply. A global study by the Hay Group showed that 19 percent of women executives demonstrated self-awareness, compared to 4 percent of their male counterparts.

Self-awareness can be developed but is anything but easy.

It requires us to be brave and vulnerable to face what we ‘don’t know we don’t know’ about ourselves. We must dig deeper than we are used to…