Entrepreneurs: Is Self-Awareness Your Superpower Or Your Achilles’ Heel?

POST WRITTEN BY Steven Pfrenzinger

Steve Pfrenzinger – entrepreneur, coach to entrepreneurs & HOF investor in entrepreneurs, specializing in self-awareness www.CoachSteveP.com

Entrepreneurs and change agents of all categories face many challenges. But none greater than the unknown blind spots and baggage that accompany a lack of self-awareness. As with all innovators, what they don’t know about themselves will hurt them and their efforts to solve big problems.

As an entrepreneur, a coach of entrepreneurs, and an investor in entrepreneurs, I’ve seen this seldom-discussed issue sink or slow progress for even the best and brightest. My goal here is to assist entrepreneurs in gaining the superpower that comes with being a fully self-aware and a better understanding of why feedback matters.

1. What is self-awareness?

Being self-aware means knowing:

A. Who we are

B. What we’re good at

C. Where we need to improve

D. That there’s no gap (unknowns) between how we see ourselves and how others see us.

In the Johari Window, a diagram mapping what we know about ourselves and what others know about us, the “Open Self” is the upper left quadrant. Being self-aware or lacking self-awareness is not a binary, either-or status. There are degrees/states of self-awareness. To be fully self-aware, A, B, C and D must be achieved and maintained.

As for who we are and what we’re good at (A and B above), we all have natural “traits” (preferences) that we carry most of our lives. These core traits are characteristics that give us a natural advantage. When fully recognized, this makes us “wired” for certain roles and responsibilities, where the odds in our favor.

Knowing where we need to improve (C above) is discussed below, but basically comes from raw feedback from others like coaches, bosses, peers, and subordinates.

As for the gap between how we see ourselves and how others see us (D above), that, too, is reconciled by feedback. For example, we may be certain that we are intelligent, visionary and a great communicator. But if others see us as loud, overly aggressive, or a micromanager, we’re “out of sync.” That’s noise in the channel. I’ve seen entire ventures collapse on this disconnect.

2. What does self-awareness include?

It includes who we are in terms of beliefs, character, feelings, purpose, and reasons to exist