The Importance of Self-Awareness in Leadership

Annie Karrick, Director of Talent Management, Learning & Development, and Inclusion, Boyd Group Services Inc

Karrick is a leadership development executive who helps organizations grow strong, self-aware leaders. She designs practical programs and coaching experiences that connect personal insight with real business goals. By encouraging reflection, honest feedback, and trust, she supports leaders in building confident teams and delivering lasting results.

Leading Others Begins with Knowing Yourself

Leaders get work done through others; they do not accomplish work on their own. The higher the level of a leader, the more this is true. To effectively lead and influence others to do their best work, leaders must understand not only their teams but themselves. In seemingly paradoxical order, leaders should get to know themselves first, and then get to know their teams.

People with strong self-awareness understand details about themselves, including what they are/are not good at, what personality characteristics work to their advantage or work against them, what environments they thrive in or struggle in, and more. Understanding these details provides clarity and insight into how others perceive them, what lens they see others through, and how these things can vary by context.

Organizations can cultivate self-awareness among emerging and senior leaders by intentionally and programmatically preparing leaders for future roles. Leadership Development programs that are created in alignment with business strategy and contain tools and resources to build self-awareness are bound to be more effective than programs that are not customized to the organization’s needs or participants’ differences.

Effective leadership begins with self-awareness and grows through trust, reflection, and accountability.

The end goal of any development program is to grow leaders who can execute the business strategy. The starting points of development programs are the leaders themselves and everything they bring to the organization. Leaders may not always understand what they bring to a role or to a development program; incorporating self-awareness tools can provide this insight. When designed effectively, development programs help participants understand themselves better in the context of the organization.

The Power of Guided Feedback

There are many assessment tools available to help leaders understand themselves; these tools can be used independently, but are most effective when interpreted alongside a coach. When valid and reliable assessment tools are leveraged, they provide data-backed information about a person. Alone, the data can be interesting, but not necessarily impactful.

With interpretation and feedback from a trained coach, the data can be tied to observed behaviors. Once behaviors are observed, they can be enhanced, decreased, or changed to help the leader be more effective in their role. Over time, this quantitative and qualitative data creates an arsenal of information about oneself and can be invaluable to be successful in different situations and with various audiences.

When we build self-awareness, we have more clarity around our own biases and how those can hurt or help us. We also learn more about our triggers and what we are not good at. We can even learn about strengths that may not have been apparent to us! Collectively, this knowledge allows us to be honest with others about areas where we may need help or areas that will enable us to share our expertise. This allows us to openly seek support for our challenges and leverage the strengths of others to fill gaps.

Vulnerability as a Catalyst for Trust and Performance

When leaders demonstrate this kind of vulnerability, it makes it ok for the team to acknowledge their own opportunities and shortcomings as well. Likewise, it creates an environment that encourages team members to share the skills they bring to the team without the risk of appearing arrogant or self-serving. When team members feel like they can be themselves, trust flourishes, communication improves, productive conflict ensues, and results improve.

A simple tool for building self-awareness is to get in the habit of asking yourself “what” or “how” questions, especially prior to or following a critical interaction. This can be done daily, weekly, or even less frequently, as long as it is done regularly. Examples include:

How did what I learned on (insert self-assessment tool) show up in my interactions this week?

What would I do differently regarding (insert situation) if I had another chance, and how could that change the outcome? What feedback did others provide me this week, formally or informally, and what insights did that give me about myself?

Growth depends on consistency; behavior that is demonstrated consistently creates a habit, and a habit creates change.