Leadership in many ways is an inside job. Jayne Sanders is an authority in the area of personal development. In this episode, she discusses how self-awareness and authenticity impact the bottom-line results of your business.
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Transcript:
Linda Ruhland
What is self-awareness with respect to business?
Jayne Sanders
Self-awareness in any environment is really understanding who we are, what drives our behavior, and how our behavior impacts others. That could be personally or professionally—very impactful in business. As a matter of fact, there was a study conducted by Korn Ferry that showed companies that had employees with higher levels of self-awareness performed better financially. It does take a willingness to recognize the truth and then work with it. So, it takes a willingness and commitment to continuous improvement.
A lot of leaders undertake it because, in a way, there’s a moral obligation to care about others and make a better world. That takes motivating us to invest in ourselves and in others and our opportunity to improve. It’s not like a once-and-done. It’s a continuous process which gives us power. As we lift barriers and filters, as they change and drop, we see others differently.
Ruhland
What are those attributes of self-awareness that affect companies, especially financially?
Sanders
The attributes that affect companies most impactfully are, I believe, number one: authenticity. Authenticity engenders, trust and credibility. And then self-awareness gives leaders consistency in not only how they manage people but how they create goals and solve problems. And consistency, itself, helps engender trust and credibility within employees. It creates vulnerability—again, trust and credibility with employees. Confidence! You know, people think that if they dive deep, they will not like what they find. But the opposite is true. Self-awareness, across the board, increases confidence and peace of mind in knowing how you respond.
There’s a real benefit in connecting your ideals and values to your behavior. Unless you know those ideals and values, you can’t make the connection. So, it feels uncomfortable and scattered to the person if they are not consistent with value and behavior. It [self-awareness] provides a grace and ease for life and everything that life involves. It helps people to be proactive—that’s another attribute. And it helps leaders to role model all of it—so it’s contagious.
Ruhland
I imagine that self-awareness has an effect on communication skills as well.
Sanders
It does, for so many reasons. It helps leaders identify priorities more effectively and correctly, make better decisions. They don’t get stuck in negative feedback where they go back and forth in the blame game, which, unfortunately I’ve seen a lot.
Ruhland
You mentioned that self-awareness does affect leadership. Why is it important to leaders?
Sanders
Self-awareness is critically important to leaders in terms of bottom-line results and financial results that I mentioned before. Those who know their strengths then know how to make the most of them. And when they know their weaknesses, or areas for improvement, they know how to minimize the impact. That, in itself, is worth its weight in gold. They become more effective 360, every which way around them. Therefore, they create more satisfied employees, more successful companies, and a more satisfying personal life. This, again, feeds back into more successful companies because you can’t separate the two. Sometimes we think we can compartmentalize like that, but we can’t. Actually, self-awareness has been proven to be the first step in learning emotional intelligence. The case for emotional intelligence has been proven over and again. It helps leaders recognize the value of continuous growth and foster a culture that supports it. That will impact the bottom line and improve leadership by understanding how others—employees and peers—perceive your behavior. It always helps to know how you are being seen and perceived so that you can make adjustments. It helps people manage emotions better, which makes a better leader and role model. And people who are self-aware have more fun. That’s part of the authenticity. Who doesn’t want more fun at work?
Ruhland
Coming into an organization, how do you determine as to whether people value and embrace self-awareness? If there’s not, how can you influence it?
Sanders
Ask questions, find out, and if they say, “Oh, yeah! We practice self-awareness!” Then, ask them what tools they use, so get the details. Ask to interview several people at different levels, and just see how authentic they seem. That’s one way to look.
Ruhland
Is it possible to foster self-awareness in an environment that needs it and would benefit from it?
Sanders
I would certainly try. Number one: Be a role model for it. Be true to your design, your ideals, and your values. Secondly, there are reports and articles, and studies that support the importance of self-awareness for leadership, companies, and management. You could put a report together. Explain, “Look, this impacts the bottom line.” Some studies say that self-awareness is the number-one characteristic of good leaders.
Ruhland
Given the possibility that the remote workplace that we are experiencing on a grander scale will continue with us for some time, how do you think self-awareness will evolve as a result?
Sanders
I think it is more challenging; however, that’s part of the reason why it’s even more important. Because the challenge of keeping the culture together and creating a positive culture, self-awareness is absolutely of benefit. To me, there’s no question. It will improve any culture. And if part of that challenge is because of remote working, self-awareness is even more important. Another characteristic of self-aware leaders is that they listen better and ask better questions. That’s part of your communication comment. They [self-aware leaders] are more aware of what employees would consider to be delightful or a surprise. It’s not a raise, I’ll tell you that right now. It’s something that’s specific to the person. It may be tickets to a baseball game. It may be a day off. There are so many different options. A self- aware leader will be more adept because the listen better and ask the right questions.
Ruhland
Is there a risk of losing control within the potential chaos that could erupt?
Sanders
From what I understand and have experienced, it makes groups gel much more firmly because the can trust, be authentic, and know each other better. They don’t want to lose that—it’s a culture that is unparalleled.
Ruhland
It might be a rather large paradigm shift for leaders to open up and let others play larger.
Sanders
Yes, some people will find it easier than others, but the more people that adopt authenticity and align their actions with their ideals, values, and who they really are, then the more of a role model they become for others. There will always be varying degrees of adoption and ability to step into it. I don’t see why that would cause chaos.
Ruhland
If you feel comfortable and strong within your position, and others feel the same about theirs, then the potential for conflict will be more pronounced. As a leader, how do you get your arms around that?
Sanders
It leads back to benefits of self-awareness, which helps people manage emotions and take in different opinions and what they might consider negative feedback. They can look at how to solve problems rather than go into the blame game. I mentioned peace of mind, grace, and ease earlier. It helps them deal with conflicting information in a much more open-minded, calm way.
Ruhland
Then we are working together to solve problems rather than defending positions.
Sanders
Yes, and the leader would reward the two people coming together and combining forces in working to find the right solution.
Ruhland
Can you give me an example of a leader who demonstrates self-awareness?
Sanders
My favorite boss was owner of an international corporate identity firm and I was head of sales and marketing. We had a couple of marketing people and a lot of designers. Anybody in that company would have done anything for the owner. He was so authentic. We saw everything—all his weaknesses. Any time he’d screw up, he’d laugh at himself, which is another ability that self-awareness offers. He was deeply loved and was a great leader, I think, because of that. We’d follow him, whatever. I never felt fearful of expressing my opinion at all, and I don’t think anybody else did either. To me, he was a good example of a self-aware leader.
Ruhland
What would be an example of somebody who did not demonstrate self-awareness, who lacked the ability to be open with people?
Sanders
That’s one of the behaviors, they lack the ability to be open! They are inconsistent. Employees won’t be able to predict how they will react to their ideas, which makes people hold back. They can come across as distant, a little cold maybe because they are protecting themselves, which makes them look arrogant. Some leaders rule by fear, so there’s little trust in their teams. And there’s a big gap between how they are in their personal life and how they are in their professional life. That’s a clue. If you’ve ever in the past gone to a company party, and one of the leaders is totally different at that party than how he is at work, there’s a gap. That person is not self-aware in the workplace.
Ruhland
Because self-awareness is one of the soft skills, how do we develop it within our people? You mentioned that there’s role modeling that can be done, but can it be facilitated? Is there a way to elevate people’s capacity for emotional intelligence that can cultivate exceptional leadership?
Sanders
One of the aspects of self-awareness is to know how others perceive you. The one challenge with that is if the leader is high [level], some people are afraid to be honest, which has to be taken into consideration. Many assessments help with self-awareness: Meyers Briggs, DISC, Strength Finders, and the one I use, Scientific Hand Analysis. That one is completely independent of people interpret questions that are asked on an assessment, how questions are written, how they might answer it one day versus how they might answer it another day. It is scientific. The lines in your hand mimic the neural pathways in your brain. It identifies pretty much everything about who you are and why you’re here. Strengths, gifts, and talents as well as areas for improvement that will benefit the person 360 by taking action. It’s a very actionable assessment.
Ruhland
Who owns the philosophy of self-awareness and authenticity in the organization? How do you make sure that it is practiced?
Sanders
You’ve got to start at the top: the CEO or president. You’ve seen what happens when HR starts something, and the C-suite and CEO are not on board. It’s not going to last. It won’t have nearly the success.
Ruhland
Is there a check-and-balance to assess how your organization rewards behavior that facilitates self-awareness and exemplary leadership?
Sanders
Take me, for example. If somebody wants me to know that they really know and respect my tastes, what I like, and what gives me great joy, they’d give me something that has to do with horses.
Ruhland
So, it’s an acknowledgement of your uniqueness.
Sanders
Yes! For somebody else, it might be tickets to a baseball game. They might love baseball.
Ruhland
On the other side of that coin, we’ve all been in situations where somebody brought a problem forward, whether it’s from a customer or a coworker, and the first question asked is “Who said that? Or “Who did that?” How can you curb that kind of behavior?
Sanders
Self-awareness keeps people from the blame game. It’s not “who said it,” it’s “What can we do about this, how can we solve this? What would a repaired situation look like? What would a better performance by our company look like?”
Ruhland
Changing the context of the interaction and problem solving might be a good start at creating a basic understanding of how to become more introspective and aware of self as well as others.
Sanders
Yes, and it’s asking the right questions. Questions that can be challenging and cause issues are “Why” questions: “Why did I do that? Why did you do that? Why did that happen?” Rather, it’s “What can we do about it? What was going on that caused it to happen?” Ask “What” questions. “What can I do next time? What steps do I need to take to help insure better results next time?” What [versus why] takes the blame out of it.
Ruhland
You bring up an important point. Who beats us up the worst? Sometimes it’s ourselves?
Sanders
Absolutely! We beat ourselves up and we are our own worst enemies. But, the more aware we are of our strengths, talents, and gifts and purpose, it helps to reduce the beating up.
Ruhland
Jayne, what kind of coaching do people come to you for after they’ve had an initial assessment?
Sanders
A lot of people come to get help in moving through those challenges and blind spots. Several clients have come to me because they were miserable in their jobs. They worked on everything else, remember how I said, “Everything impacts us 360.” All of a sudden, their enemies at work transformed. It wasn’t the enemies; it was they who transformed. Blocks dropped. Filters changed. It’s interesting—fascinating and so rewarding to me, how deep self-awareness impacts us in a positive way.