Clearly, it is a given that if one knows him or herself (self-awareness) they will be much better at leading. It almost seems like it goes without saying that the need to have this overt premise being taught is a redundancy. I agree that, out of the need to be thorough, an extensive delineation of the connectivity of its application must be in a leadership development teaching forum. According to Northouse (2013), self-awareness is the part of an individual’s core that allows him or her to enact all other aspects of self in relation to the world around that individual. He infers that it is the personal perspective that an individual has of their position and how others perceive them and therefore allows the individual to relate to others, based on this view. More importantly, he posits that through self-awareness, the individual is able to gain a sense of their value and how that value relates to and compares to other’s values. He furthers that from this an understanding is derived where the individual frames his or her personality and introspectively allocates hierarchical order respective to the place they have taken in the world, their roles, expectations, strengths and weaknesses to the extent that even our motivation is regulated by self-awareness. Leadership expert, Warren Bennis, in his book, On Becoming a Leader (2009), calls it “the management of attention” and goes on to describe why it is the first leadership competency. Bennis almost mirrors Northouse’s summation that it is sort of the picture that we have painted of ourselves and is, therefore, instrumental in encouraging or discouraging us into becoming goal directed, determined, or lacking self-confidence. The ethical standards we adopt from the things we are exposed to emerge, in great part, is based on the belief we have of our entitlement to rewards and punishments surrounding these values (Bennis, 2009; Northouse, 2013), so, self-awareness is an integral part of an individual’s internal constructs of themselves that materializes to who they become.
As an aspect of the Psychodynamic Approach, self-awareness serves as an attribute that can mobilize aspiring and achieved leaders to overcome setbacks that threaten to diminish or completely limit or block their progression to influence others (Northouse, 2013). One aspect that I think is of extreme pertinence is the Repression of the Shadow Self. Since by very definition, the Shadow Self is the socially unacceptable component of ourselves that can often go unnoticed (PSU, 2015), there is a very real threat to offending others unintentionally. I can think of many habits that I adopted that created strong responses from others that signaled to me that they were turned off, offended, or even to the extent of being aghast that I behaved in such a manner. One in particular is directing my focus elsewhere, usually up, when in deep thought when communicating with someone. While this, I initially thought, was innocent, it reduced my connectivity with other parties of the importance of conversations and sometimes even deterred them from engaging with me in future discussions, as they felt that I lacked focus, failed to be inclusive, or even that they were relinquished briefly by me in the middle of discussions. It was not until I gained cognizance (I became self-aware) of the impact of my distracting behavior, that I could mend this aberrant act and restore or progress to improved practices in communicating.
Thankfully, the issue of self-awareness has gained much attention and as a result garnered tremendous focus for resolutions. In the article, Exploring Trait and Task Self-awareness in the Context of Leadership Development by Krause, Hamid, & Ismail (2010), the authors point to self-awareness as an essential tool needed to allow leaders to regulate their sensitivity towards others and expand their ability to accommodate based on varying circumstances. My situation, for example, had I not come to realize the limitations it was generating, I could have continued to diminish my reach, the way others viewed my ability to communicate, and therefore, my leadership. Krause et al. (2010) cite the usage of self-awareness as a means for one to internally manipulate decision-making, one’s ability to forecast, and predict self and other’s actions and reactions, emotions, and perspectives; I would add to that list the Shadowed Self. From this we see just how essential self-awareness is in providing insight and clarity, which is a key necessity that sets apart leaders to enable them to acquire influence over followers. It is only when an individual is able to be completely self-aware, can it be possible for them to emote confidently what to expect from others, and that it is at this junction, that they cross over, in one aspect, to becoming competent leaders (Krause et al., 2010; Northouse, 2013).
References
Bennis, Warren G (2009). On Becoming a Leader (4th ed.) Philadelphia, PA: Perseus Book Group.
Krauss, Steven E., Hamid, J. A., Ismail, Ismi A., (2010) Exploring Trait and Task Self-awareness in the Context of Leadership Development among Undergraduate Students from Malaysia. Leadership, 6, 3-19
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2015). PSYCH 485 Leadership in Work Settings: Lesson 3 Psychodynamic Approach. Retrieved from: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa15/psych485/001/content/03_lesson/printlesson.html
Jeslynn Theresa Puskar says
Wow, this was an excellent discussion on self-awareness and the “repression of the shadow self”. What was most interesting to me was that I often wish that I could adopt the same exact habit that you pointed out as “socially unacceptable”. Most of the time during communicating, I often spurt out the first thing that comes to mind (which can be equally offensive), and no matter how many times I tell myself to chime into my deeper thoughts before speaking, I never seem to come to doing so. What is more interesting is when I put myself on the other side of the conversation and try to think as if I am the people we are communicating with. For example, lets say we both have a conversation with Jane. When she talks to you, she feels that you have lack of focus and when she talks to me, she feels that I am overbearing in the conversation and she can’t get a word in. Either way, we both need to master the art of pausing in conversation as it does render its benefits when incorporated appropriately.
To end, I have to say thank you for providing your real life example because it wasn’t until now that I actually realize my own repression and the shadow of self. As pointed out by PSU WC, L. 3 (2015, p. 7), since other people see the shadow, they react to it. So as mentioned above with the example of Jane, I started thinking about how people react to me in during conversation, and it isn’t uncommon for someone to say, “Are you done?” While its not all the time, I do have a tendency to go off into a rant, especially if I am passionate about something and here comes the shadow. I have attributed this to be being good at communicating! Which I now realize is completely absurd. Communication is a two way process, and while I may have the ability to get my point across, I’ve definitely been denying that it can be overbearing and ineffective.
I do have one question. What method are you using, or will you be using to improve your practices in communication?
Thanks again!
References
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2015). PSYCH 485: Lesson 3: Psychodynamic Approach. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa15/psych485/001/content/03_lesson/12_page.html