Editorial review: November 12, 2026
Self-aware leadership involves comparing what you intend with how your behavior is experienced. A leader may believe they encourage discussion while colleagues experience meetings as rushed or difficult to challenge. That gap is worth investigating through examples and feedback rather than assuming either view tells the whole story.
Internal and external self-awareness
Internal self-awareness concerns your own values, priorities, reactions and assumptions. External self-awareness concerns how other people experience your behavior. Both are useful: knowing why you acted does not establish how the action affected someone else, and another person’s impression may not reveal your intention.
A development tool can provide questions to explore, but it cannot replace those conversations. See psychometric assessments for teams for how to use a profile as a starting point rather than a verdict.
What the evidence shows
A 2015 Korn Ferry analysis examined 6,977 self-assessments from professionals at 486 publicly traded companies. It reported that professionals in poorer-performing companies were 79% more likely to have low overall self-awareness than those in companies with stronger stock returns. That is not a finding that 79% of leaders have a blind spot.
The company-sponsored analysis reported an association. It does not show that increasing self-awareness caused better stock returns, or that a workshop will produce a particular financial result. The practical case for asking for feedback should not depend on turning that association into a promise.
Recognize a specific blind spot
A blind spot can be a mismatch between how you rate a behavior and how colleagues experience it. For example, you may describe yourself as decisive while others say you close discussion before relevant risks have been heard. Start with the situation: what happened, who was affected and what information is missing?
Avoid asking only, “Am I a good leader?” That invites broad reassurance or criticism. A more useful question is, “In our last review, when did I make it easier or harder to raise a concern?” Ask for an example and resist the urge to explain your intention before understanding the answer.
Ask for feedback and act on it
- Choose one behavior. Focus on something observable, such as interrupting, giving unclear deadlines or changing priorities without explanation.
- Ask more than one perspective. Peers, direct reports and partners may experience different parts of your work. Explain what you want to learn and how you will use it.
- Listen and clarify. Ask what happened and what a more useful response would have looked like. Thank the person without promising a change you cannot make.
- Choose a small experiment. State what you will do differently and when you will try it.
- Follow up. Ask whether the change was noticeable and useful, and adjust based on the response.
An illustrative meeting example
Suppose a leader receives feedback that they answer their own questions too quickly. They might say, “In the next planning meeting, I’ll leave a pause after asking for risks and invite written comments before we decide. Please tell me afterward whether that gave you enough room.”
After the meeting, the leader checks what changed. Did someone raise a concern earlier? Was the decision clearer? Did the written route help, or did it create another task without improving the discussion? This is an example of a review process, not a claimed client outcome.
Make reflection useful
Before a difficult conversation, notice what you are reacting to and what outcome you want. Afterward, compare the result with that intention. You might ask: What did I assume? What did I hear? What did I miss? What will I try next time? A short note can help you see a recurring pattern without turning reflection into self-criticism.
Coaching or a well-designed multi-rater feedback process can provide structure. Check how confidentiality is handled and how feedback will be interpreted. Do not promise anonymity if the process cannot reliably provide it, especially in a small team.
Connect insight to team agreements
A leader’s reflection becomes useful to others when it changes an interaction they can observe. Clearer decision rules, a reliable feedback route or an honest explanation of a constraint may matter more than an abstract claim to be self-aware. Keep responsibility for the change with the person who can act on it.
Read adapting leadership communication for channel and feedback examples, explore leadership development, or contact Discover Yourself to discuss a focused next step.