1+1: The self-knowledge superpower + Discover your leadership bottleneck

Here's one leadership idea and one resource I’ve found beneficial in the past two weeks:

1 idea: The self-knowledge superpower 

During my six years as an executive coach, I’ve met a lot of smart leaders. Across the two dozen Fortune 500 companies I’ve partnered with, I’ve met executives who’ve attended Ivy League schools, led billion-dollar enterprises, and been recognized before Congress. Many of them carry impressive pedigrees and rank as some of the most intelligent people I know. And yet as I consider which ones were actually the most effective in their roles, their effectiveness had little to do with their resumes. Across the board, the best leaders were almost always the ones with the greatest self-awareness.

My friend and fellow speaker Brenda Jank likes to say, “If knowledge is power, then self-knowledge is a superpower.” Of all the things we could know about in life, understanding ourselves is arguably the most important. That’s not because we are the most important thing in the universe, but because everything I do and experience in the universe is filtered through me.

If you own a manufacturing plant that can machine thousands of parts daily, you have an opportunity to generate millions of dollars in revenue each year. However, if your shipping department can only mail out a few dozen parts each day, your inventory will pile up and you will go out of business. That’s because no matter how impressive your productivity is in all those other areas, your output is always limited by your greatest constraint.

In life, you are your shipping department. You are your own biggest bottleneck.

If you have unrecognized cognitive biases that are leading to poor decisions, that’s a bottleneck.

If you don’t understand your strengths, you’ll miss chances to earn more money or add more value to your team. That’s a bottleneck.

If you don’t recognize the relational patterns you slip into, you’ll accidentally damage the relationships that are most important to you. That’s a big bottleneck.

These gaps in self-awareness undermine your success in all the other areas of your life. It doesn’t matter how smart or hardworking or well-connected you are if you have a massive blind spot that undermines your success. Your success is always limited by your biggest constraint, and for most of us, self-awareness is that constraint.

While becoming self-aware is always valuable, it’s rarely easy. The facts are always your friends, but that doesn’t mean they’re pleasant. However, leaders who are committed to effectiveness don’t let the ickiness of their own inconsistent thoughts and behaviors keep them from constantly conducting honest self-assessments. They know that we have to live in reality because things only change in reality.

To go on this journey of self-awareness, you have to have companions on the journey who can reflect back parts of you that you don’t see. Books, mentors, assessments, coaches—each of these can give language to concepts that you perhaps grasped but have yet to fully wield.

The journey is tough, but it doesn’t have to be lonely.

***

• What are my personal bottlenecks?

• What would I need to do to stop getting in my own way?

• Who can help me become more aware of my own bottlenecks--and guide me through them?

1 resource: Discover your leadership bottleneck

Do you know what your bottleneck is—and what to do about it? If not, this three-minute assessment will get your started with a simple, actionable framework that will enable you to make some forward progress.

PS: How to prank Frank Sinatra.