Maximizing Team Performance: The Power of Self-Awareness & Relational Awareness in Leadership

Leadership is more than just guiding a team; it’s about understanding the individuals who make up that team and leveraging their strengths for success. In this article, I’ll share insights into how knowing ourselves and our team members can positively impact team performance and leadership abilities.

The Power of Self-Aware Leadership

Good leadership requires more than just dedication to results and operational efficiency; it requires self-awareness and a focus on leadership soft skills.

Green Peak Partners and Cornell University research evaluated executives and found that high self-awareness was the strongest predictor of overall success. Leaders aware of their weaknesses can better hire team members who excel in those areas, fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation within the organization.

Understanding Your Team for Greater Success

Truly knowing your team is crucial for leaders as it builds the relational awareness required to effectively organize people, mobilize plans, and optimize performance — three of the four essential competencies for scaling an organization.

Relational awareness fosters empathy, allowing us to understand and appreciate those who think differently. Understanding our team members’ personalities, strengths, and working styles helps us leverage diversity in thinking, leading to better outcomes. By recognizing differences, we can address gaps by adding complementary team members. This understanding prevents us from only adding similar thinkers, which increases our blind spots and limits the effectiveness of our decision-making.

The Reason Self-Awareness Is an Advantage

A study by Tasha Eurich revealed that while 95% of people believe they are self-aware, only 10 to 15% are. Self-awareness is not a simple matter of clearly seeing one’s thoughts and behaviors; it involves battling biases and judgments that can cloud thinking and decision-making.

So, how do we help ourselves and our teams accelerate self-awareness?

At Forge, we recommend using three proven assessments: Gallup’s CliftonStrengths assessment, the Integrative Enneagram Questionnaire (iEQ9), and the Kolbe A Index. These tools help us collectively measure how we think, feel, and take action. Through assessments, we can understand motivations, personality, strengths, weaknesses, and instinctive behaviors, which we refer to as a working style.

By cultivating awareness, leaders can unlock their true potential, create an environment where their team members can thrive, and give their organizations a strategic advantage.

Optimizing Performance Through Self-Awareness & Relational Awareness

Leadership begins with understanding oneself. Self-awareness is key to recognizing strengths and blind spots. This understanding allows us to leverage our strengths for the team’s benefit. It also fosters empathy, reduces conflicts, and improves performance and job satisfaction.

Truly knowing your team members can optimize their performance and engagement. Leaders can align tasks and responsibilities by understanding their personalities, strengths, and working styles. Allowing team members to work within their strengths leads to higher productivity and personal satisfaction.

Next Step: Teach Your Team to Play to Their Strengths at Our Virtual Team Training

Are you ready to equip your team with knowledge and tools to boost their performance? Join us for a one-day virtual intensive, Play to Your Strengths: Do More of What You Do Best, on Thursday, April 25, 2024. This training will explore three proven tools—CliftonStrengths, Enneagram, and Kolbe—to increase your team’s self-awareness and help them understand their unique abilities and operating styles.

Attending will empower your team to become more effective, better understand each other’s differences, make a greater impact, and ultimately experience more fulfillment at work. You’ll also equip yourself and the leaders in your organization to understand and leverage your team’s strengths.

Register your team for our upcoming team training today, and save $100 on each seat when registering 8 or more people.