Self-Awareness and Situational-Awareness: Leadership Essentials

I’ve enjoyed developing curriculum and teaching management and leadership principles to the leadership team at The Dewey Schools in Vietnam. During my recent study and preparation, two essentials for effective leadership have been on my radar. These are self-awareness and situational-awareness, and they can make a huge difference in our leadership.

Self-awareness, for leaders, involves understanding and managing yourself and your motives, emotions, and behaviors, recognizing that these have a direct and significant impact on organizational subordinates. Until I become self-aware and intentional in my behavior, I likely won’t develop connections with my subordinates that will have constructive influence and impact on their behavior and performance. There are many underperforming managers in our schools whose significant professional knowledge and skills are not making a difference because they cannot understand and manage themselves and, as a result, cannot connect with their team and have influence and impact commensurate with their ability. 
Hand-in-hand with the leader’s need for self-awareness is the need for situational-awareness. This is the skill of being attentive to and perceptive of the reality of your team members, including understanding their needs, thoughts, and feelings. From time to time, I encounter a school leader who is a master at ‘reading the room’ in adjusting their interaction with others based on their ability to capture and understand the context and its characteristics, leveraging this understanding for increased influence, impact, and productive action. This is the alignment of their leadership with the situational reality, not some sort of manipulation of others based on an analysis of their needs and feelings.
School leaders can improve self-awareness and situation-awareness through reflection, intentionality, and discipline, enhancing our leadership and organizational effectiveness.

Dr. David Wells