Before you can lead a team with confidence, you have to be able to lead yourself.
Self-awareness in leadership is more than a buzzword. It’s the ability to understand your values, emotions, strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots — and it’s one of the most important leadership skills you can develop.
Leaders who develop self-awareness make better decisions, adapt more effectively, and create the trust needed for high-performing teams.
Harvard Business Review research shows that only about 15% of people are sufficiently self-aware, and there is less than a 30% correlation between people’s actual and self-perceived competence. That means most people’s self-view doesn’t match reality — a costly gap for leaders, because it directly impacts collaboration, morale, and conflict resolution.
Bill George, a Harvard Business School professor and former CEO of Medtronic, calls self‑awareness the starting point of leadership. He warns that without it, leaders risk “losing their compass” when under pressure.
By contrast, self-awareness fuels authenticity, emotional intelligence, resilience, and stronger decision-making. It’s the difference between a leader who simply manages tasks and one who inspires people to achieve more than they thought possible.
The benefits of self-awareness go beyond personal insight. It underpins many essential leadership skills — from decision-making and communication to conflict resolution and adaptability. That’s why it’s central to any leadership development programme.
Trust is the currency of leadership. Emotional self-awareness is a cornerstone of empathy, which in turn builds trust. Leaders who recognise and manage their emotions respond to challenges with fairness and composure, which encourages employee engagement and discretionary effort — the willingness to go the extra mile — starts to show up across the team.
Human-centred leadership is about more than “being nice.” It’s the ability to lead in a way that puts people, purpose, and relationships at the heart of decision-making.
Harvard’s ladder of inference model shows how quickly we can make assumptions based on limited data, jumping to conclusions without checking the facts. Leaders who are self-aware can slow down, test their assumptions, and make better, more inclusive decisions.
In today’s fast-changing workplace, agility is essential. Leaders need to adapt, not just processes and priorities, but also their own approach. Self-awareness gives leaders the internal feedback loop they need to adjust their style, manage stress, and stay effective whether they’re in a crisis meeting, a virtual strategy session, or a casual one-on-one.
Forbes reports that embedding self-awareness early in leadership development provides individuals with a strong foundation to build their own leadership style — one that can flex with new challenges and changing business landscapes.
Authenticity isn’t about “telling it like it is” without regard for others. It’s about aligning actions with values, and leading in a way that feels real and consistent.
Authentic leaders inspire higher trust, commitment, and performance. They create psychologically safe environments where people can share ideas, admit mistakes, and challenge the status quo without fear of ridicule or retaliation.
When leaders lack self-awareness, it shows — and it costs.
RedSeed’s Leading Self programme is designed for current managers, aspiring leaders, emerging talent — and anyone who wants to lead more effectively. It’s part of the RedSeed leadership training suite and focuses on developing leaders from the inside out — helping them gain a deeper understanding of themselves, their impact on others, and their personal leadership style.
Participants will:
This approach mirrors best practices in leader development research, which highlight self-awareness, adaptability, self-confidence, and an accurate self-image as critical intrapersonal competencies.
For decision-makers, developing self-awareness in leaders delivers measurable business outcomes:
If your leadership pipeline lacks self-awareness, you’re leaving untapped potential on the table. Leading Self is a scalable, structured solution.
Emma, a high-potential team lead, is technically skilled, full of ideas, and committed to results. But under stress, she becomes abrupt, and her tone can come across as dismissive — something she doesn’t notice, but her team feels.
Through RedSeed’s Leading Self programme, Emma maps out her personal values, identifies her key strengths, and receives feedback on her communication style. She learns that her reactivity stems from a desire to “fix” problems quickly.
With coaching, Emma experiments with pausing before responding, asking clarifying questions, and reflecting on how her words might land. Over time, her team notices the change. Conversations become more open, problems are addressed without blame, and her credibility as a leader grows.
Emma’s story shows that when leaders lead themselves first, they create the conditions for others to thrive.
Even before formal leadership training, leaders can begin strengthening their self-awareness and related leadership skills by:
Effective, resilient leadership begins from the inside out. Self-awareness isn’t something you either have or don’t — it’s a skill you can develop over time.
When leaders understand their motivations, values, and triggers, they can lead with empathy, authenticity, and clarity. This benefits not just individuals, but entire teams and organisations.
RedSeed’s Leading Self programme is designed to support that journey. Whether you’re grooming emerging leaders, refreshing experienced ones, or building a strong leadership pipeline, it provides the foundation for leading others more powerfully.
The evidence from Harvard, Forbes, and decades of leadership research points to the same conclusion: knowing yourself is the most essential first move in leadership.
Self-awareness in leadership is the ability to recognise your own emotions, values, strengths, weaknesses, and behaviours — and understand how they affect others. Leaders with strong self-awareness can adapt their approach, build trust, and make better decisions.
Self-awareness is the foundation for many other leadership skills, such as emotional intelligence, communication, conflict resolution, and decision-making. Leaders who understand themselves can lead authentically, inspire trust, and create more engaged, high-performing teams.
When leaders are self-aware, they can manage their reactions, adapt their leadership style, and connect more effectively with their team. This creates a culture of trust and psychological safety, which leads to better collaboration, higher morale, and stronger results.
Self-awareness is a skill that can be learned and improved over time. It develops through reflection, feedback, and training — such as participating in a leadership development programme like RedSeed’s Leading Self.
The Leading Self programme combines video-based eLearning with coaching loops, so leaders don’t just learn concepts — they put them into practice. It’s designed for new, emerging, and experienced leaders to strengthen their self-awareness and other core leadership skills.
This programme is ideal for:
While some changes in awareness can happen quickly, lasting behavioural shifts typically develop over several weeks or months. RedSeed’s blended learning approach helps leaders embed these changes into their daily leadership practice.
Self-awareness is one of the core components of emotional intelligence. It allows leaders to understand and regulate their emotions, which improves communication, empathy, and the ability to build strong working relationships.
Research shows that leaders with higher self-awareness are more effective, adaptable, and trusted. Organisations benefit from stronger leadership pipelines, improved team performance, and reduced turnover.
Karen Gowans
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