Inner Work of Leadership
There is little doubt that self-awareness is the pivotal foundation of several popular leadership capacities such as Emotional, Social, Cultural and Aesthetic Intelligence. Self-awareness promotes self-inquiry; challenges to the mindless habits that define how we think and behave. A range of experiences (sensory, cognitive and emotional) coupled with various methods (journaling, storytelling, aesthetics) are being utilized to help leaders get in touch with who they really are, understand how they are currently experienced and determine how they want to be experienced in the future. It is what Howard Gardner calls developing our “identities” and what Edgar Schein calls deepening our ability to “listen to ourself”. So, my question is…what ‘inner work’ have you done as an individual, or as part of a group, to deepen self-awareness and secondly, how have these learnings been integrated with your daily work life and influenced your impact as a leader?
