January 15th is National Pothole Day! In honor of this holiday, let's talk about how to avoid potholes on your leadership path.

Lately, there have been a lot of events where leaders have had to lead through challenges or respond to changing circumstances. From layoffs to policy changes and more, I’ve been watching some leaders step right into big potholes with their decisions, actions, and words. The impact that leaders have is immense - especially in the workplace where a decision to “reduce the workforce” has implications for those who suddenly find themselves without jobs, paychecks, and health insurance.
The common thread I’ve noticed with leaders getting tripped up in the potholes is a lack of self-awareness: If you haven’t taken the time to notice that the pothole is there, how can you avoid or repair it? You’re destined to fall right into it! The lack of self-awareness is, in fact, so common that research done by Dr. Tasha Eurich found that while 95% of people believed they were, only 10-15% actually were self-aware. The odds are, then, that many of us have room for improvement in building our self-awareness - and it’s especially important to do this as a leader.
What is self-awareness?
Put simply, self-awareness is your ability to recognize your strengths, weaknesses, emotions, behaviors, motivations, and the impact that your actions have on others. As a leader, your actions have an even greater impact on the people you lead, as well as business outcomes and success. Understanding the various aspects of yourself and the impact of your actions is crucial for being an effective and authentic leader.
Back to the potholes…
When you neglect to build your self-awareness, you can fall into potholes on your leadership journey, making the journey more challenging, creating unnecessary obstacles, and requiring you to stop and fix things you could have avoided breaking in the first place. (If you prefer sports metaphors, they’re the unforced errors in the game.)
These potholes include:
Poor decision-making capabilities, often delaying making any decisions or being uncommitted to decisions that have been made
Knee-jerk or low-quality decisions that tend to create new problems instead of solving any
Emotional outbursts under stress that create more chaos and uneasiness
Erosion of trust from team members & colleagues
Taking actions based on the wrong motivations, such as self-preservation instead of the best outcome for the team/company
Slow or no learning and improvement in leadership skills, and the potholes begin to feel really familiar as you step into them again and again
Benefits of Self-awareness
Building your self-awareness can help you avoid or fix the potholes you encounter before you trip over or fall into them. Leaders with a strong sense of self find it easier to:
Build trust, especially with the people they are leading
Make better decisions
Leverage their strengths and address their weaknesses
Manage their emotions to minimize chaos
Take accountability for and learn from mistakes
Grow their leadership capabilities
In fact, research shows that when a company has leaders with high self-awareness, the company has better outcomes. In a study conducted by Korn Ferry measuring stock performance on 486 publicly traded companies, they found that companies with a greater percentage of self-aware employees consistently outperformed those with a lower percentage.
So, with greater trust, better decisions, and a better bottom line, what are we waiting for?! Let’s build our self-awareness!
“Know Thyself”
This concept is so classic it dates back to 5th century BC Greece. This isn’t just knowing what your favorite food is or your favorite color - this is looking at the WHOLE picture of what makes you, you.
Here are 5 actions you can take today to get to know yourself better.
Uncover your values & motivations
Simon Sinek famously wrote “Start with Why” - and it’s good guidance for your self-awareness journey! Your values and motivations are the cornerstone of your why. Why you became a leader in the first place and what’s important to you are the things that will anchor you when you’re faced with challenges or difficult decisions. In my work, I’ve found that many of the new leaders I coach have never been asked about or taken time to articulate their values or understand what really motivates them. Once they’ve had the opportunity to explore their values, they’re able to approach challenges with more confidence and act in alignment with their values.
Start by reflecting on these questions: What’s important to you? What are the reasons you became a leader? What drives you? Identify your values and explore how you can better align your actions with your values?
Take inventory of your strengths and how you can best use them as a leader
You have a unique set of strengths - as Dr. Suess said, no one is youer than you! Identifying your strengths and really owning them allows you to leverage them so you can be both effective and authentic as a leader.
If you haven’t yet identified your strengths, start here: What are you the best in the world at? What comes easily to you - so easily, you don’t even think about it? What do others seek you out for? What do you feel really proud of being able to do?
Pro Tip: Be sure to look at both “hard” and “soft” skills - leaders need both!
Do an honest self-assessment of your weaknesses or areas where you could improve as a leader
When you understand your weaknesses or areas of improvement, your awareness of what you’re capable of today and what you are still learning helps you see potential potholes before you fall into them. Once you’re clear on your areas for improvement, you can choose how you want to manage them - a development plan, leveraging a strength to help you, partnering with someone who is strong in that area, or even delegating to a rockstar team member!
Explore these questions: What do you avoid doing? What are you currently actively working to improve? What feedback have you received? Of the leadership skills your company values, which are new skills for you?
One note about honesty - I have worked with dozens of women who are new to leadership roles, and without fail each one fell into the trap of being self-critical instead of being neutrally honest. I recommend finding a buddy for this exercise who can challenge your inner critic.
Pay attention to your emotions, recognize your reactions to stressful situations, and practice stress management techniques
We have emotions all the time - and that’s not a bad thing! Emotions can give us important data that we can use to understand the world around us. Emotions play a big role in how we make decisions, what biases we hold, and how we handle stress in challenging situations. It’s especially important as leaders that we are aware of this and manage ourselves, especially when it gets stressful!
Think about what happens when you’re faced with stress: fight, flight, or freeze? What tends to trigger a stress reaction? Is it loss of status, decreased sense of belonging, unfairness, lack of safety? Something else? When do you notice feeling that way? What happens physically (heart racing, sweaty palms, etc)? Exploring this gives you an opportunity to recognize when you might need to give yourself a minute before reacting to a challenge.
Here are a few techniques to give yourself that minute:
Take 3-5 slow deep breaths, maybe close your eyes
Change your environment - stand up, open a window, stretch, go for a walk
Use visual imagery and imagine being in a more peaceful environment - the beach is my favorite
Reframe the situation so you can look at it from different perspectives
Ask for - and listen to - feedback, especially from those you lead
Feedback is one of the best tools you have for learning and growth! Our own opinions on ourselves don’t give us the full picture, so we can miss things. Use feedback to understand where you might have gaps, what is effective with your team members and what isn’t. You can also learn about how well you’re aligned with what your team members want or need from you as their leader. Make it a habit to ask for feedback regularly. Listen to understand, get curious, and consider how the feedback can help you be even more effective.
Pro-tip: Be specific when asking for feedback! Not just “How am I doing?” Instead, focus on a specific area or skill you think is important. Ex: What does your team expect from you as their leader? How are you doing in meeting those expectations?; Do your team members feel valued and respected by you?; How well do you communicate goals, expectations, and announcements that impact your team’s work?
Becoming a good leader - one who is authentic, ethical, and effective - takes time and effort. Building your self-awareness is a big part of that effort, but over time, you’ll be able to see the potholes ahead and take the right actions to avoid or fix them before you fall into them.
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