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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