Leader, Know Thyself

Self-awareness is the ability to close the gap between (a) how you see yourself and (b) how others see you. But how self-aware are people really? Dr. Tasha Eurich's research shows that 90% of people think they are self-aware, but only 10% actually are. When leaders overestimate their level of self-awareness, they don’t fully recognize how their behaviors impact people across the organization – from their direct team and peers to customers and other key stakeholders.

Examples of low self-awareness include when leaders think that they: speak passionately about an issue, but others perceive their passion as defensiveness; provide constructive feedback, but others perceive it as sharp criticism; interrupt people to keep meetings on track, but others perceive it as disrespectful. This gap in a leader’s self-awareness can cause damage to their team.

Self-awareness helps leaders to make better decisions about how they show up in front of others. Self-aware leaders don’t act impulsively or reactively: instead, they step back from situations and act in knowledge of how their actions and behaviors will impact team members. They use this perspective to inform strategic decision-making and action, which equips them to lead their teams more effectively.

Psychological safety creates “an environment in which people believe they can speak up candidly with ideas, questions, concerns, and even mistakes” (Edmondson, 2020).

Our model of psychological safety maps to five key areas that drive engagement and performance in teams: (1) Innovation, where people feel safe to share unconventional ideas; (2) Learning, where people treat mistakes as learning opportunities; (3) Honesty, where people feel like they can flag risks and concerns; (4) Inclusivity, where everyone feels included, regardless of their personal characteristics or social attributes; and (5) Value, where everyone feels valued for their unique strengths and contributions (Edmondson, 2018; Radecki, 2018). The foundation of these five pillars is self-awareness.

Self-aware leaders actively choose to invite their team’s candid feedback and ideas. They are also more likely to respond productively when they hear “bad news”, and to create an environment that values “intelligent failures” that drive innovation. Even in high-stakes situations, self-aware leaders behave in a way that promotes psychological safety.

Psychological safety unlocks peak performance and innovation. High performance standards and high psychological safety create a learning culture. A learning culture is one where people learn from “intelligent failures”: the kinds of mistakes that are radical and creative, not just careless errors (Sitkin, 1992; Edmondson, 2011). Organizations with a strong learning culture are 92% more likely to innovate new products to drive business development.

By contrast, high performance standards and low psychological safety create an anxiety culture (Edmondson, 2008). Here, team members are afraid to speak up, which makes them less likely to share out-of-the-box ideas. They also tend to withhold concerns, which may prevent them from flagging risks that could impact the organization. Studies in knowledge management estimate that this can cost companies up to USD 47 million a year.

Psychological safety is key to achieving high performance standards. To develop and embed psychological safety in an organization, leaders need to lead by example. Leaders are role models: if they adopt psychologically safe behaviors, they encourage everyone else to do the same. To do this, they must first build self-awareness. Self-awareness helps leaders act and behave in ways that create psychological safety.