Capability @F-L-O-W

BmD: Capability – Part 2 – Perspective

Perspective

What did almost all of the 75 members of Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Advisory Council recommend as the most important capability for leaders to develop?

Self-Awareness

Here are the components of Capability that I have found IMPORTANT to address in creating Self-Knowledge>>Self-Awareness, along with their major constituents:

Perspective:

Applying	Elaborating	Seeking
Giving	Assimilating	Integrating
Taking	Coordinating	Differentiating

Subjectivity:

Instrumented – animated	Institutional – self-authored
Interpersonal – other-directed	Inter-individual – self-aware

Ego Position:

Opportunist	Achiever	Strategist
Diplomat	Individualist	Alchemist
Expert

Languaging:

Declarative	Serial	Third Order
Cumulative	Parallel	Fourth Order

Task Performance:

Formal	Systematic	Paradigmatic
Meta-Formal	Meta-Systematic	Meta-Paradigmatic

Talent:

Talents	Knowledge	Design
Skill	use	Scaffolding

Affect [Sentiment]:

Pessimistic	Neutral
Optimistic	Apathetic

Sense-Making:

Meaning Making	Making meaning to make sense
Making Sense	Sense Making as a Meta-System

I want to take them one by one and just outline briefly what each means in the context of our sense making about postmodern leader developer and the equation self-knowledge>>self-awareness.

Self-Knowledge>>Self-Awareness

I believe there is sufficient proof and experience to show that self-awareness potential is hardwired into us through heredity and that while there are MANY constraints and enablers towards that potential, that we can say without doubt that self-awareness can be compared to heritable traits like height, eye color, body type, and even a variety of other genetically inherited traits, such as intelligence — although intelligence and self-awareness are not the same thing!

From Merriam-Webster:

self–aware·ness (noun) : knowledge and awareness of your own personality or character

self–knowl·edge (noun) : knowledge or understanding of one’s own capabilities, character, feelings, or motivations

aware (adjective) : knowing that something (such as a situation, condition, or problem) exists : feeling, experiencing, or noticing something (such as a sound, sensation, or emotion) : knowing and understanding a lot about what is happening in the world or around you

knowl·edge (noun) : information, understanding, or skill that you get from experience or education : awareness of something : the state of being aware of something

I think you get the idea?

It’s like splitting hairs, however in my experience, there is one MAJOR differentiation.

There is not a genetic constraint on self-knowledge, as it relates to knowing things about yourself, you can acquire knowledge of yourself through many different methods and you can “objectively” know yourself.

Awareness on the other hand is quite different, in my view.

Awareness has to do with the consciousness that surrounds being able to be an observer of ourselves in the moment. And while again, it might seem like a “hair splitting” phenomena, I will proceed with the assumption that knowing about myself and being aware of myself in the moment may be related, but are NOT THE SAME THING — thus relieving me of constraints on my potential for knowledge acquisition and skill development.

I will agree that the field of adult development has a lot more to do with defining self-knowledge and self-awareness, so until that happens with some degree of conformity, I feel that self-knowledge>>self-awareness, where potential for self-awareness exists.

What I am not loading onto a person is the idea that self-awareness is a universal language like math, to be learned and applied with objectivity. It may be a much more subjective experience than we realize and it may not be possible for anyone to achieve any level of self-awareness, although there are great followings that presuppose that assumption.

My conclusion is thus:

If people are at different “potentials” for self-awareness, then I’m going to focus where the constraints are less than genetic, so to speak and not train someone to be taller, but to be more aware of their height and what they can do as a result.

Towards that end, and after almost 3 decades of trying to teach pigs to sing*, I offer the following set of ideas for your use in the next part of Capability.

*Teaching a pig to sing is a metaphor to describe how we often tend to think that anyone can do anything, and it goes like this: You can’t teach a pig to sing, and it annoys the pig! So focus on those things pigs can be, do, have, become and contribute instead.

I hope you pick up valuable insights, ideas and tools during this process, which you can use for your own development and your work and leadership with others.

If you have comments, please feel free to leave them here on the blog.

You, Me, and We @F-L-O-W

Mike R. Jay is a developmentalist utilizing consulting, coaching, mentoring and advising as methods to offer developmental scaffolding for aspiring leaders who are interested in being, doing, having, becoming, and contributing… to helping people have lives.

PS: To learn more about our 2015 Program, Behavioral MetaDYNAMICS and to enroll in the experience, visit HERE.

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