The 10 Elements of Leadership

Element #10: Self-Awareness

By Tom Tischhauser, Executive Coach

Video Transcript

Our video series is focused on the 10 elements of leadership that great leaders display consistently. So far, we've covered 9 of the elements. Element 10 is self-awareness and pulls it all together.

Now, self-awareness is your ability to understand how you're doing on the 9 elements. High self-awareness, or effective self-awareness, is knowing which of the 9 are your strengths, which are your opportunities, and addressing each accordingly.

 When I start my coaching engagement with clients, most tell me they have strong self-awareness and know exactly what their strengths are and what their gaps are and where we should work. Well, that's kind of like going in to the doctor for your physical and saying, "Doc, I know we've gotta go through all this stuff, but I'm fine, and at some point can you just look at my finger?"

Well, Wynstone Partners relies on data, so the first thing we do is a 360 feedback analysis where we do interviews with your boss, subordinates, colleagues, stakeholders, anybody that sees the client's leadership style in real time. Now everybody's excited about the feedback. "Oh, this is great! I'm going to finally get my feedback," thinking that "Oh, I'm going to get all these accolades and going to be great and great." So everybody wants feedback...until they get it. My clients are shocked, and they're stunned because they have a perception of themselves on Elements 1 through 9 that's just not real. They've just convinced themselves that they are strong in Elements 1 through 9, but there are a couple that they could work on. Well, the feedback tells them something different.

 So what does that tell you? It tells you to get the data. Don't assume you have strong self-awareness without getting your feedback data. It's the number 1 disconnect with our clients. They assume they all have strong self-awareness and they know their strengths and opportunities on Elements 1 through 10, until they get their feedback and realize that they don't.

One of the things we stress in the coaching process that we haven't talked about in Elements 1 through 10 is to stay in top physical shape. You're all corporate athletes. You have to be in top physical shape to be able to do the job you do. And with that, we recommend regular exercise and a physical every 12 to 18 months to make sure that your physical shape is in top form. But you also have to assess your leadership health on Elements 1 through 10. So please get that 360 degree feedback once every 12 to 18 months.

Great leaders take people to a place they couldn't get to on their own. And these 10 elements of leadership serve as the foundation for great leadership.

Thank you for watching our video on self-awareness! If you've missed any videos or would like additional leadership thoughts, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, visit us on LinkedIn or wynstonepartners.com. Thank you for watching our video series on the 10 Elements of Leadership! And always remember that better leadership yields a better business.

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