MANAGEMENT

Self-awareness is the
gateway for developing
positive leadership capacity.

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in focus
M
ost of my career has been spent
leading HR and organizational and
BY MICHELE NEVAREZ leadership development functions
across a wide range of industries. What I no-
ticed soon after I began coaching and working
with executives to develop their leadership
capabilities and strengths is that irrespec-
tive of how well I coached someone or how
receptive the individual was to the coaching
process itself, lasting behavioral change was
not a given.
Typically, I would start by having the cli-
ent complete a 360-degree assessment (usually
the emotional and social competency inven-
tory) and pair this input with a robust behavioral
assessment (usually the Hogan Leadership As-
sessment), the combination of which provided a
powerful platform for the client to begin gaining
insight and perspective on her self-perception
relative to her reputation and to refine the cli-
ent’s thinking on her ideal vision of self.
What I eventually came to understand,
however, was that mere intellectual under-
standing of one’s strengths and gaps or a
TDFE710305Nevarez.indd 55
podcast
genuine desire to close these gaps—even
when coupled with the fear of a negative
performance assessment or reward of pro-
fessional and personal gain—often were not
enough to bring about the degree of lasting
or discernible behavioral change needed to
achieve consistently better results. This isn’t
to say the clients I worked with didn’t de-
rive any personal meaning or benefit from
the coaching process, make shifts, or gain
valuable insight; they did and often were ex-
tremely grateful for the opportunity to work
with a coach to gain greater clarity of purpose
and move in the direction of their ideal self.
However, my insight was that there wasn’t
necessarily a causal link between my efficacy
in applying commonly accepted coaching
methodologies, the clients’ desire to change,
and their ability or success in making mean-
ingful and lasting changes to long-standing
personal behavioral norms (which weren’t al-
ways serving them well) and in turn building
on existing strengths or developing new, effi-
cacious ones (that would serve them better).
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 I observed a similar and somewhat discon-
certing gap between the leadership concepts
I was imparting and an individual’s ability
to absorb and apply these ideas both expe-
rientially and situationally—despite quality
of content, the skillful use of adult learning
strategies, and any enthusiasm participants
often had toward the content.
It is experiences like these that have led
me back again and again to the firsthand ob-
servation that self-awareness is perhaps the
most basic building block of human expe-
rience through which we can readily gain
access to and leverage our own agency.
The fundamentals of behavior change
There is a lot of worthwhile conversation to be
had on the topic of behavioral change, but at
the most fundamental level, how we show up,
how we are perceived by those around us—our
efficacy or lack thereof—unfolds in none other
than the present moment. It unfolds so con-
tinuously that we mistakenly perceive our own
and others’ behavior to be static when this
perception couldn’t be further from the truth.
It is only through doing something repeatedly
that it takes on the appearance of having the
continuity of a behavior. In other words, we
behave as a skillful leader and valuable team-
mate one moment at a time.
Thus, the key to our ability to skillfully navi-
gate the complex soup of human emotions,
both our own reactions as well as those of oth-
ers, depends on our ability to be self-aware
and to apply the right set of actions and be-
haviors in the moment, again and again and
again. In this way, self-awareness is said to
be one of the few causal links to effectively
navigating the intricate web of human interac-
tions and cultivating positive responses
to the varied stimuli we face each moment
of our experience.
What is self-awareness?
Let’s start with a brief summary of definitions
for self-awareness across a wide range of dis-
ciplines and perspectives:
• Within the framework of emotional intel-
ligence, self-awareness means being able
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to recognize your feelings, how they affect
you, your performance, and everything
you do.
• From the field of neuroscience, to be self-
aware speaks to how tuned in a person is
to his own bodily signals that constitute
emotion.
• Experientially, self-awareness is the
unique ability we have as humans to ob-
serve the contents of our own minds,
sometimes referred to as meta-cognition.
In other words, we have the capacity to
observe our own mental phenomena (for
example, thoughts, emotions, and feelings)
and then reflect on and think about these
mental objects.
• Using the language of psychology, self-
awareness is a psychological state in
which, according to Wikipedia, a person
becomes the focus of attention as “the
accurate appraisal and understanding of
one’s abilities and preferences and their
implications for our behavior and their
impact on others.”
• From a philosophical standpoint, self-
awareness is the mind’s capacity to know
and be aware of the objects of its atten-
tion. It is also the mind’s capacity to be
aware of and focus on its own capacity for
cognition and awareness.
Given this wide range of definitions of
self-awareness, so too are the implications of
its practical relevance. Examine under what
circumstances or conditions you have been
able to successfully and consistently manage
yourself—meaning your impulses, emotions,
motivations, or actions—absent self-awareness.
Take a moment to reflect and think about it
right now.
Isn’t it true that when there is an absence
of self-awareness (that is to say, when we are
on autopilot), we are at the mercy of our ha-
bitual tendencies to react and respond to the
day-to-day events of our lives? A feature of be-
ing on autopilot is that we rely on and fall back
on the same routine and unquestioned behav-
ioral responses without stopping long enough
to realize that nine times out of 10 we are the
common denominator of our own problems.
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 We can either keep doing what we’ve un-
consciously mastered, which is to rely on our
habitual tendencies and hope this gets us to
our desired destination and isn’t somehow a
further cause of our undoing; or we can pro-
actively train ourselves in and gain familiarity
with our innate capacity to be awake and
aware in each new moment so that we
are skillfully poised and ready to navigate
our own and others’ emotions.
At the heart of performing or embodying
every leadership competency is self-
awareness—the gesture that beckons us
inward and provides the space to facilitate
a skillful response. In the same way that
our perception of any given color is depen-
dent on the reflection of light, the consistent
expression of our positive human qualities
is dependent on us being self-aware in
the moment.
Although we tend to think of leadership
qualities in a singular or static manner, as
skills or accomplishments to be definitively
developed and mastered such that we may
once and for all check them off the devel-
opment plan or to-do list, our capacity to
produce and reproduce positive behavioral
responses stems from our ability to be consis-
tently self-aware—which, if you look closely, is
a moment-to-moment proposition to be won
or lost. That is where the conversation about
self-awareness and the development of all
other leadership qualities must begin.
If focusing on emotional self-awareness
within the emotional and social intelligence
framework requires that we are able to rec-
ognize our own feelings, their impact on
ourselves, and ultimately on everything else,
then we need to employ methods to learn
to recognize our feelings. There are three
practical ways to gain familiarity with your
feelings and emotions as they arise: medita-
tion with focus, body scan, and journaling
and self-reflection.
Meditation with focus
With spine straight and gaze lowered or eyes
closed, gently place your attention on your
breath. Find and focus on your breath however
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you perceive it to be moving in your body (that
is, in and out or up and down). Simply notice
the breath without forcing it and allow its nat-
ural cadence.
As thoughts, feelings, emotions, or any
other mental movement surface, notice the
movement of your mind and return your at-
tention to your breath as soon as you see that
your attention has wandered off. The moment
you notice that a thought or a distraction has
shifted your attention away from your breath,
you’re actually already back. In this prac-
tice you aren’t following or fixating on your
thoughts or emotions; you are simply main-
taining an awareness of your breath.
AT THE HEART OF PERFORMING OR
EMBODYING EVERY LEADERSHIP
COMPETENCY IS SELF-AWARENESS.
Whatever arises in your mental field or
through one or more of the five senses, re-
main cognizant or aware, returning your
focus with each distraction to your breath. In
fact, the more you find yourself wandering off
and reminding yourself to return your focus to
your breath, the more practice you’re getting.
It’s like doing three sets of 10 repetitions at the
gym instead of one. So, no need to get too wor-
ried if you get carried away. In this case, getting
carried away will only yield more opportunity
to practice.
Eventually, you’ll extend this experience
and recognition of your mind’s movement to
day-to-day scenarios when you aren’t nec-
essarily cultivating meditation with focus
such that you start to notice when you have
an opening or when a thought, feeling, or
emotion has the potential to derail you. Cul-
tivating this type of self-awareness serves to
create space between the stimuli you nor-
mally react to autonomically and, in turn,
gives you a window to react with greater
poise, skill, and purpose of intent. It is in that
moment before you do or say something that
you discover you have agency to respond
skillfully to each situation.
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 Body scan
Attuning yourself to your body’s signals is
another strategy that develops your abil-
ity to be aware of what’s going on with you
physically and often is a signal for what is
happening on an internal or emotional level.
There are many guided meditations that can
be accessed online, or lead yourself through
your own body scan.
Training yourself to notice the body’s physi-
cal sensations and signals helps pave the way
to notice when our emotions or mental state
may be having a positive or deleterious effect
on yourself or others.
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Journaling and self-reflection
Each day you have the capacity to self-reflect,
set aspirations or goals, and review how your
actions match up with your intentions. Give
yourself small assignments or experiments
to gain stability in your self-awareness such
that you become more aware of shifts in your
mood, mental attitudes, intentions, and actions.
For example, focus on paying attention to
how your mood shifts throughout any given day,
noticing what your mood is, when it shifts, and
why it shifts. Moreover, as you experience the
range of human emotions throughout the day,
pause whenever your emotions become strong,
take note of what’s happening to give rise to your
experience and perception of circumstances at
that moment, and reflect on how your thoughts
and feelings are influencing the situation.
Check in with yourself at the close of each
day by reflecting or journaling about whether
you’ve met your expectations for how you
would like to behave and, in turn, whether
others experienced you in a manner consis-
tent with how you would like to be perceived.
While the news that we each have tremen-
dous influence over our own efficacy and
outcomes on a moment-to-moment basis could
initially come as a shock or feel like a big respon-
sibility, the good news is that self-awareness is
a skill that can be developed both at a neuro-
logical and a behavioral level. The further good
news is that we have many moments to prac-
tice. However, one thing is certain: Irrespective
of what we do to develop self-awareness, it is
arguably one of the most pervasive common de-
nominators of agency we have available to us.
As such, developing self-awareness not only is
important, but it also opens the doorway to be-
coming proficient in the many other leadership
behaviors we need to demonstrate to be effec-
tive in our professional and personal lives.
Michele Nevarez is managing principal and organiza-
tional development consultant for Brain Capital. She spe-
cializes in coaching highly driven executives and profes-
sionals, leveraging what we know about the brain, emo-
tional and social intelligence, and resonant leadership to
help leaders develop resilience, focus, and self-awareness;
michele.nevarezsphr@gmail.com.
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