Leader know thyself

This article is part of the Contemporary leadership series

“I talk about self-awareness,” says Syd Finkelstein, professor at the Tuck Business School in New Hampshire and author of the new book Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Manage the Flow of Talent (2016).

“Working in a consulting capacity with a CEO or senior executive, the extent to which they’re self-aware is really remarkable; it comes out in a conversation so often. To me it’s really one of the most powerful leadership capabilities. That’s how I label it, to make it more practical to people, because self-awareness is a very touchy-feely type of idea once you get right down to it. But I call it a leadership capability.”

Bill George, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, and now a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, is another expert who identifies self-awareness as an essential starting point for leadership. For George, it is the first capability associated with authentic leadership. 

Des Dearlove is co-founder of the Thinkers50. He is an Associate Fellow of Said Business School at Oxford University; an adjunct professor at IE Business School, where he taught the Strategic Communication Module on the International MBA; and the author of a bestselling study of the leadership style of Richard Branson. He has taught on the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme, and the Swarovski Academy in Switzerland, and teaches media skills and crisis management at Cranfield School of Management.

He is a former columnist to The Times, contributing editor to the American magazine Strategy+Business, and co-editor of the bestselling Financial Times Handbook of Management. His books available in more than 20 languages include Gravy Training and Generation Entrepreneur (co-authored with Stuart Crainer).