Self-awareness is a virtue, and often ignored in the dominance of developing your IQ (Intelligence Quotient). It is a crucial component that helps you to recognise unruly thoughts. Such thoughts reflect suppressed emotions creating an invisible clutter. Self-awareness enables you to see the clutter before you begin to clean it.
Your mind can either be a battleground rallying futile conflicts between good versus bad, right versus wrong; or it can be a field that nurtures the seeds of harmony, thoughtfulness and mastery. Self-awareness helps you shift from the field of conflicts to the field of brilliance.
Scientific research on self-awareness by Tasha Eurich––an organisational psychologist lists two broad categories––the external and internal awareness. External awareness is about your understanding of how other people perceive you. In contrast, the inner awareness leads you to see your values, passions, aspirations and the impact you have on others.
Self-awareness predominantly is associated with spirituality and mysticism but is a powerful leadership skill. Research shared by Harvard business review states that people who know how others see them are more skilled at showing empathy and taking others perspectives. Isn’t this a great leadership skill?
Here are 3 perceptive reasons why self-awareness is a trait of a successful leader.
#1: Makes you a responsive leader : Impulsive thinking fosters indecisiveness and inefficient solutions over-looking long-term negative consequences. Self-awareness keeps you grounded and centred. This enables you to see through situations with more acceptance, and from various view-points making you more responsive than impulsive. A responsive leader is a successful leader.
#2: It strengths metacognition: Metacognition means building knowledge about your own cognitive process. It is a term coined by American developmental psychologist John H. Flavell. It is a high-order thinking skill. It helps you see your internal responses that integrate both your knowledge and emotions. This ability creates a balanced outlook, a win-win approach, especially for intercultural interactions.
#3: Results in higher success rate: The success rate is a byproduct of purpose, clarity and resilience. It is a consequence of various intangible character traits, enabling you to recognise your personality and character dimensions. This guides you towards empowering changes bringing you tremendous personal and interpersonal success.
So, anchoring in deep self-awareness will strengthen your core and help you become a leader that translates vision into reality. It will enable you to be your best-version and bring out the best in others too.
