Kaiser Wilhelm II An example of a leader low in self awareness.
Perhaps the last century’s swing towards the outgoing, outspoken, in charge leader, who always exuded confidence has created the increasing need for cultivating self-aware leaders.[1] Before the twentieth century it was often considered egotistical for leaders to promote themselves. When the newly formed Continental Congress nominated George Washington to be commander-in-chief, he was not one of the most experienced candidates. He did not campaign to become the head general of the new, inexperienced and poorly equipped army, but he relied on others to recognize his potential in this position. For many leaders in today’s world, depending on the judgment of peers has become a thing of the past.
This tendency for leaders to not regard others opinions of them shows up prominently in Research by the Hay Group. Their study compared individuals’ concept of themselves against that held by peers, and their self-perceived abilities against actual abilities. Self-awareness was dismally low (under 20%) among managers. Knowing ones own abilities, shortcomings, and impact on others is assumed to be essential for any kind of leader, but often it is sadly lacking.[2]
Sometimes an increase in self-awareness can be related to a decrease in other “desirable” traits such as self-esteem. Recent research conducted on university campuses has come up with some intriguing results. Those students who became more self-aware started a noticeable downward drift when reporting on their level of a self-esteem.[3] There was also a significant relationship between self-awareness and self-acceptance. Research at the college level showed no difference in self-awareness among extroverts and introverts (the percentage of introverts in college is significantly higher than in the general population.). However, the introverts with higher levels of self-awareness tended to relate an experience of lower self-acceptance.[4]
We want leaders to be sure of themselves, and are often reluctant to follow someone who admits to weaknesses or expresses doubts. However, if people are actually honest, they would have to admit that they are not thrilled by the results when they examine their own internal emotions and motivations. Therefore some avoid looking too much into these things. This partial blindness does seem to provide a benefit to those seeking leadership positions. Research has shown that individuals who are self-deceptive when it comes to assessing themselves are also better at convincing others to trust in unrealistic and overly optimistic outcomes.[5]
So will the quest to improve self-awareness result in turning leaders into people who seem less like leaders? Or will we stick with over-confident people who have little concept of their own abilities?
[1] Rudd, Anthony. Self, Value, and Narrative: A Kierkegaardian Approach, OUP Oxford, Oct 25, 2012
[2] Baldoni, John. Few Executives are Self-aware, But Women Have the Edge. May 09, 2016
[3] John Ickes, William. Wicklund, Robert A. and Ferris C. Brian. Self awareness leads to lower self esteem. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Volume 9, Issue 3, May 1973, Pages 202–219
[4] Vingoe, Frank J Rogers’ self theory and Eysenck’s extraversion and neuroticism. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol 32(5, Pt.1), Oct 1968, 618-620.
[5] Nauert, Rick. Overconfident People Likely to be Overrated. PsychCentral.com
Much of what I’ve perused recently on self-awareness tout the benefit of meditation in increasing self-awareness. This has led to a boom in meditation instructors providing both classes and retreats for mastering the techniques. Search for meditation on the internet and you will find hundreds, perhaps thousands of instructors willing to teach this skill for a fee. Many practitioners insist that you cannot learn to meditate properly without this kind of guidance and support, warning that students will not learn to overcome initial pitfalls and move on to a higher level of awareness.
Recently I was reading research about grammar police, the people who notice every misspelling and usage error in your writing and assume that you are ignorant based on these errors. Evidently they are disagreeable–certifiably disagreeable.
According to the original meaning of self-awareness over 99.9 % of humanity qualify for this trait because people are aware of their existence. So, this is not enough to be considered special. However, self-awareness has a new meaning along with a new claim that it distinguishes leaders from others, according to Daniel Goleman.
Whenever I see “problem solving” listed as a component of emotional intelligence, I tend to regard the rest of what the author says on that subject with skepticism. Typically problem solving is a combination of creativity and logic to generate an innovative idea and put it to practical use. Creativity hardly seems related to emotional intelligence, judging by the character of creative people. In fact researchers have found that one recurring trait of this creative group is a lack of regard for social skills. They tend to be less considerate, more likely to find fault, less agreeable and more rebellious than the average person.
Imagine that you are sitting down to holiday dinner at which a number of friends and family have gathered. The host, Micaela is young, a bit nervous, rushing about trying to please the guests. Timidly she offers a plate of brown patties, with a fine grain in plate of broth. When asked “What is it?” she responds smiling, “Pate foie gras… goose liver paste.” Sandy, sitting across the table momentarily curls up the side of her mouth in an sign of contempt.
If you do any research on testing for Emotional Intelligence, you are likely to run into a couple of names repeatedly. One is Howard Gardner who came up with the idea that there are several types or modalities of intelligence.
Search on Google for information on how to be less confident, and over 90% of the hits will actually be explaining ways to increase your confidence. This does have its perks. According to research from Washington University overconfident managers are more likely to get promoted. Then, they are also more like to make investment decisions that hurt their companies.
Have you been a the position in which someone purported to be knowledgeable, or even an expert in an area gave you instructions that were impossible to follow once you got into the details… huge chunks of the process were missing or full of jargon with no real information. However, this person didn’t do it just once or twice, but so frequently you began to wonder if they plotted to destroy your reputation at work, or were just plain stupid. According to recent research on overconfidence there is a good chance that probably did not have as much knowledge in the field as you, but didn’t know it.
