Why do some leaders progress, learn, and sustainably improve the performance of their teams, while others, who are just as talented, stagnate or end up derailing?
One of the major answers, according to Hogan Assessments, lies in a key concept: Strategic self-awareness.
Jackie Sam, VP Interactive Solutions at Hogan Assessments, one of the Hogan experts we talk to regularly at Authentic Talent, summarized her vision in several forums that we summarize here.
In this article, you will discover:
The challenge goes beyond individual performance alone: it affects the organizational culture, the HR strategy, the sustainable performance teams and the leadership potential in the long run.
Hogan's founder, Robert Hogan, PhD, recalls that when the ancient Greeks said “know yourself,” they weren't talking about introspection in the narrow sense of the word. Their concept of self-knowledge referred to the understanding of limits of its performance capacities in a given interaction.¹
In the same vein, the concept of self-knowledge developed by Hogan — called strategic self-awareness — is based on understanding how others perceive us in social interaction.
When leaders don't recognize their strengths, limitations, and values, their performance cannot reach its full potential. Their own productivity suffers as well as that of their teams.
But awareness alone is not enough. Self-awareness becomes strategic when this knowledge allowsact. In other words, leaders need to understand how their characteristics influence their reputation in a given context, and what behaviors they can adjust to become more effective.
According to Hogan, strategic self-awareness is a major driver of leadership performance, at the heart of the procedures ofassessment & development, coaching and team transformation.
To explore the impact of strategic self-awareness in talent management and leadership development, Hogan sought the expertise of Jackie Sahm, MS, Vice President of Integrated Solutions at Hogan. She summarizes the concept as follows:
“Strategic self-awareness is about figuring out what a personality trait can do for you in the context of your projects, not just understanding the absolute value of that trait.”
In the rest of the article, strategic self-awareness will be defined, its challenges for organizations will be detailed, and then its implementation will be illustrated.
Strategic self-awareness refers to the degree to which you understand your strengths and limitations, and how others see you in any competitive or challenging situation.
This complex form of self-knowledge has three key components:
An essential point: strategic self-awareness does not focus on The identity, that is, the way we see ourselves, but on The reputation, that is, how others perceive us.
The distinction is decisive. In a high-stakes situation (business, strategic project, team transformation, etc.), the behaviors to be adjusted depend on the The eyes of others And of context.
Let's take a person who has a flexible and unstructured approach to work. She is generally comfortable with ambiguity, but can also be perceived as impulsive or disorganized.
Developing and applying strategic self-awareness is valuable for everyone, but especially for leaders. Recognizing the impact of one's own behaviors on others is at the heart of effective leadership And of sustainable management.
Hogan defines leadership as the ability to build and maintain a high performing team. Strategic self-awareness is a key skill to achieve this.
However, this form of self-awareness is hard to achieve. There are several obstacles in the way:
As if that were not enough, strategic self-awareness is based on the understanding of How we appear in the eyes of others. Jackie Sahm puts it this way:
“How does my behavior affect others, for good and for bad? That's where the team comes in. Understanding what I do and how it impacts others — and then making small, meaningful adjustments — can profoundly transform how a team works.”
From the perspective of HR strategy, organizational culture and team transformation, strategic self-awareness therefore becomes a governance issue as much as a subject of individual development.
A leader's lack of strategic self-awareness can have very negative effects on teams and, beyond that, on the organization.
Jackie Sahm gives an example: a leader, intense and energetic on a daily basis, can react to bad news with a high emotional volatility Or a great aggressiveness when under pressure.
Gradually, to avoid screams or outbursts, the team is learning to hide mistakes.
Consequences:
The cascading effects can be very serious: errors in judgment, poorly calibrated decisions, a climate of fear, reduced commitment, the departure of key talents... all risks for sustainable performance and the employer brand.
Leaders without strategic self-awareness weigh serious risks about the organization. Conversely, leaders who understand how they tend to behave under stress and learn to manage these behaviors can significantly improve productivity and the quality of decisions.
It is also crucial to know When to mobilize strategic or operational forces, and when to rely on the skills of others. La versatility of the leader would explain more than half of the variability in leadership effectiveness, but is only found in less than 10% of leaders.2
To build an environment in which leaders and teams thrive, organizations must therefore offer development devices that help everyone to strengthen their strategic self-awareness: personality assessment, coaching & coaching, structured feedback, etc.
Before they can change their behaviors, a person must:
Of scientifically validated personality inventories are a great starting point. They support the procedures ofassessment & development and make it possible to objectify what would otherwise remain implicit or subjective.
Personality has two main components: The identity and The reputation.
That's why Hogan inventories focus on reputation-based insights.
Hogan personality inventories describe what Hogan calls:
More specifically:
Jackie Sahm points out:
“Hogan is unique in that he offers a profound, fair, and candid assessment of the good, the bad, and the frankly difficult.”
High scores on some HDS derailors may reveal potentially negative characteristics that may hinder leadership effectiveness. For example, a person who is usually confident and confident may become arrogant, hypercompetitive, or even combative under pressure.
Jackie Sahm continues:
“Very often, what is good and what is not so good in us is inseparable. Part of what makes you unique is also what can make working with you difficult. One of the big challenges of strategic self-awareness is maintaining these two truths at the same time.”
There is nothing simple about this process. Strategic self-awareness is much more like a A lifelong quest only has one box to check in a skills development plan.
But even if it takes time, it is possible not only to develop this strategic self-awareness, but also to use it to change their behaviors — and, potentially, develop its reputation within the organization.
The key factor is support. A Hogan certified coach is a valuable resource for developing strategic self-awareness and translating it into concrete development goals.
With an external perspective, the coach can:
The coach also brings concrete tactics to clarify development priorities and set realistic expectations about the process.
Often, development effectiveness is based on small, repeated behavioral adjustments on a daily basis. For example, focusing on remembering first names to nurture empathy and the quality of the relationship.
The benefits of these micro-changes are cumulative and result in:
Anyone who bases their development goals on strategic self-awareness should communicate openly about their change efforts. Jackie Sahm highlights two particularly effective strategies: Accountability (accountability) and the Feedback.
Accountability is based onclearly express your need for change and his intention to adapt his behaviors. Jackie Sahm illustrates the message that this can send:
“I recognize that I am imperfect. I have blind spots. I see that this trait or behavior is hurting you, and I want to fix it.”
To state that is a extremely powerful lever in any process of defining development goals, and a strong signal for the team.
Beyond accountability, development based on strategic self-awareness requires regular feedback. The development plan should specify how and when this feedback will be sought:
Just as a top athlete analyzes their performances to refine them, a person who has set development goals needs to: perspective on its progress.
“Proactively seeking feedback on an improvement goal is the only way to know if you're really making a difference,” says Jackie Sahm.
Strategic self-awareness—understanding one's strengths and limitations, as well as how others perceive us in any challenging situation—is valuable in both professional and personal fields.
“Know yourself” is advice that goes back thousands of years, and it's no coincidence. In the current context, marked by complexity, permanent transformation and the challenges of sustainable management, it becomes a real strategic imperative for:
Hogan personality inventories provide a robust framework for articulating personality assessment and development, by integrating our daily behavior, derailments and our profound motivations.
By helping leaders see how they really look in the eyes of others, these tools become a powerful tool for:
At Authentic Talent, we believe that the provision of objective devices to support the processes of global individual and collective awareness within organizations is a major element for their future success. If you want to discuss the subject with us, Let's talk !
This article is based on the article published on the Hogan Assessments website: What is Strategic Self Awareness?
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¹ Reference to the Greek philosophical tradition around “gnothi seauton” — “know yourself”.
² Hogan data on the impact of leader versatility on leadership effectiveness.
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