I recently finished a CEO search and had a fascinating conversation with the search committee chair. One of our candidates was so self-assured and over-the-top with confidence that he could do anything that the committee became very turned off by him. The search committee chair remarked that “self-awareness is just not what is used to be.”

I thought about the work that Dr. Andy Garman and I did for our leadership competency book. Self awareness was an important component to success. We wrote:

Developing self-awareness requires leaders to intellectually and emotionally process on two levels. First, leaders must develop the ability to collect accurate, high-quality feedback from the work environment. Secondly, leaders must contemplate what that feedback means to them and their performance as leaders. They must use an open mind. (Adapted from - Exceptional Leadership: 16 Critical Competencies for Healthcare Executives by Carson F. Dye and Andrew Garman, Health Administration Press 2006)

Self awareness – perhaps the starting point to great leadership development?