The topic for the March 22, 2018 Servant-Leader roundtable was “Awareness and Self-Awareness.” The following notes reflect the rich conversation that took place around the table. These notes are a summary of the notes taken by Jim Kerlin and have been edited to reflect the themes of the conversation. They are a mere shadow of the wisdom shared by the people at the table.

In this summary:

Topic: Awareness and self awareness

• Improving one’s awareness is a journey not a destination.
• We all have different levels of awareness and it evolves throughout life.
• We are the 7 people we hang around with most.
• When we are our weakest we tend to grow the most.

Awareness of others:

• Some people have self awareness as a strength and others not so much.
• Most people are good judges of character.
• Some people can sense things in others that they don’t even know…almost like a sixth sense.
• Most people are much more transparent than they think, – and so are we.
• Given enough time…people’s real intentions come out.
• Sometimes it is difficult to find the balance of how much awareness or self awareness to share.

Developing awareness

• Feedback coaches can provide a sounding board for developing better perceptions and awareness.
• Our feedback coaches should be people that are different than us. We will learn the most from diverse voices.
• Sometimes we don’t like the feedback we get.
• Sometimes the input we receive from those closest to us is resisted whereas a neutral party giving input might be more accepted.

Insights for leadership

• When we are trying to lead people there may be a gap between our perception and the perceptions of others.
• It can be challenging to assume a leadership role among peers.
• Be consistent in your feedback.
• Trust is a huge factor. Without trust your feedback will be rejected…period.
• If you are leading for your own gratification people will see through you and not want to follow you. You need to be authentic as a leader to be successful.

For more information:

Servant-Leader Milwaukee roundtables take place almost every week. All roundtables are free and open to the public. If you would like to get weekly reminders of roundtable events, you can join the S-L MKE mailing list, click here.

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