When Self-Awareness Is Just Selfish-Talk

Yeah, I’ve noticed things are broken and passively ignored them before. Let he who hasn’t cast the next stone through the already broken abandoned factory windows.

Tasha Eurich is the kingpin of self-awareness research. She recently tweeted this Alan Mulally quote,

If you don’t have a vision, a smart strategy, and a detailed plan to get there, the process of self-awareness is just talking.

All the self-awareness in the world doesn’t matter without an action plan (or at least a plainly stated direction to be headed in – which can be the basis for creating the action plan too, so don’t worry if you’re not all the way there yet).

For context, it’s also important to point out the two types of self-awareness Eurich discusses in her work:

Internal Self-Awareness is how we see our own “values, passions, aspirations, fit with our environment, reactions (including thoughts, feelings, behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses), and impact on others.”

External Self-Awareness is how others view us in terms of the same factors.

Good leaders pay lip service to the values, passions, environment, etc.

Great leaders include an internal and external assessment of each into their vision, strategy, and action plan, per Mulally’s quote.

It starts with how we see ourselves. It continues with how others see us. The move ends with what we do with it.

Want more? Check out Tasha Eurich’s work, her HBR article “What Self-Awareness Really Is (And How To Cultivate it)“, or read another post about her work here (“3 Types Of Blindspots We Encounter All Of The Time (And What To Do About Them)“)