Self-Awareness and Leadership Quiz

• Self-awareness is the ability to see oneself clearly.

• Most people do not have high levels of self-awareness.

• There are two types of self-awareness: internal and external.

• Internal self-awareness is associated with higher job and relationship satisfaction, personal and social control, and happiness.

• External self-awareness means understanding how other people view us.

• People who know how others view them are more skilled at showing empathy and taking others' perspectives.

• Leaders who see themselves as their employees do, their employees tend to have a better relationship with them, feel more satisfied with them, and see them as more effective in general.

• It's tempting to value one type of self-awareness over the other, but leaders must actively work on both seeing themselves clearly and getting feedback to understand how others see them.

• People don't always learn from experience, expertise doesn't help people root out false information, and seeing ourselves as highly experienced can keep us from doing our homework.

• The more power a leader holds, the more likely they are to overestimate their skills and abilities.

• One study found that more-experienced managers were less accurate in assessing their leadership effectiveness compared with less experienced managers.

• Similarly, the more power a leader wields, the less comfortable people will be to give them constructive feedback, for fear it will hurt their careers.

• People who introspect are less self-aware and report worse job satisfaction and well-being.

• The problem with introspection isn't that it is categorically ineffective, it's that most people don't do it enough.

• The question "why" is a poor way to self-reflect because we can't access many of the unconscious thoughts, feelings, and motives we're searching for.

• The question "what" is a better way to self-reflect because it helps us stay objective, future-focused, and empowered to act on our new insights.

• People who are very introspective are also more likely to get caught in ruminative patterns.

• To increase productive self-insight and decrease unproductive rumination, we should ask what, not why.

• Leaders who focus on building both internal and external self-awareness, who seek honest feedback from loving critics, and who ask what instead of why can learn to see themselves more clearly - and reap the many rewards that increased self-knowledge delivers.

• There is always more to learn when it comes to self-awareness, which is why it is such an exciting journey.

• Leaders who focus on building self-awareness can learn to see their strengths and weaknesses more clearly and improve their decision-making skills.

• Self-awareness is important because it allows leaders to see the impact their decisions have on others and to make better choices.

• Leaders who focus on building self-awareness can also learn to better understand their customers and employees.

Test your knowledge of self-awareness and leadership with this quiz. Explore the types of self-awareness, its impact on leadership effectiveness, and ways to improve self-awareness for better decision-making and relationships.