How Self-Aware are your leaders and managers?

Having worked with leaders and managers across industries for over 20 years, one theme holds true - leaders who are more self-aware are the happiest and most successful. 

They are more resilient, better able to balance their own needs with those of the organisation. They are more confident, clearer thinking and able to communicate with kindness and candour. They inspire others with their calm, open demeanour. And this has a bottom-line impact too.

A study conducted by Green Peak Partners found that companies with highly self-aware leaders demonstrated 186% higher return on investment (ROI). 

Conversely, a study conducted by Korn Ferry found that leaders with low self-awareness are likely to cause a 20% decrease in team performance.

It’s therefore no surprise that employees also rate self-awareness as the most important capability for leaders to develop, with 92% ranking it as the top skill.

So why does self-awareness make such an impact?

By becoming adept at identifying and understanding the connection between our feelings, thoughts, and behaviours we can monitor and modulate ourselves better by making more conscious choices. 

Focusing on how we show up for ourselves also has an impact in terms of how we show up for and support our teams. And our increased levels of happiness, comfort and balance are infectious – the more self-aware we are as a leader, the more self-aware our teams will be. This creates a virtuous circle of respect and care – and teams that people flock to be a part of.  

How Self-aware are your leaders?

I’m sure we’ve all worked for managers who have what I call David Brent syndrome – a belief that they are highly self-aware and insightful, but who are actually anything but. The endgame provoked by their inability to self-reflect and accept accountability is usually loss of trust and respect – and team members who can’t wait to jump ship.

Do your managers think they’re self-aware? Chances are that they do – studies show that while 85% of us think we are pretty self-aware, in fact only about 10-15% of us have above average levels of self-awareness. We’re clearly good bluffers!  

We help organisations to create kick-ass cultures by helping leaders and managers to enhance their self-awareness in order to operate from a kinder, more authentic, more connected place.

Find out how we do this by joining our upcoming session for senior leaders.

Discover more about the session here.