Self-Awareness As A Collective Practice: Leading With Reflection In A Time Of Instability

In this moment of cultural, political, and economic uncertainty, when we have no idea what horrors the next news cycle will bring, or how we and our loved ones and our communities might be impacted, many of us are variously experiencing our nervous systems under pressure.

Whether it's hypervigilance in a hostile environment, bracing for the next disaster, or being continually exposed to reports of violence and death, most of us (if we’re lucky) still also have our “day jobs” and our teams to manage.

At CCI, we’ve been reflecting a lot on our work and our theory of change, and analyzing data from our work with clients to identify how it is that we facilitate workplace culture change towards equity, belonging, and inclusion.

While traditional leadership skills tend to reflect a top-down and directive approach (decision making, strategic planning, goal setting, delegation), we’ve identified some foundational inclusive leadership skills that may seem obvious to those who practice them, but are actually quite new in many work environments.

One of them is the capacity for self-reflection and self-awareness.

This is a skill that many of today’s leaders have never been required to develop - or supported in doing so - especially when there is continued pressure to “produce.”

I would say that we are living the results of that culture.

However, if we want what we “produce” to contribute to a more equitable and inclusive culture, self-reflection that leads to self-awareness is critical.

When we can recognize and understand our own thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and their impacts on others, we can take responsibility for our experiences and actions, express our needs, and listen to and respond to the needs of others.

When we understand why we do things, and can recognize patterns of behavior that may be deeply rooted in past circumstances and situations more than by present ones, we can adjust so that our impact is more in alignment with our intentions.

For some of us (especially those of us with marginalized identities), it also means we can stop making ourselves over-responsible, and we can reduce the degree to which we are over-functioning and taking on more than is ours to carry.

The gap between what we experience and what others think we are experiencing can be pretty eye-opening. So can the gap between how we think we come across and how we actually come across, in other words, the impact we think we’re having and the impact we’re actually having.

That’s one of the things that makes coaching within an organizational context so fascinating and powerful - when we are doing 1:1 coaching with multiple members of a team, we can see those gaps, and, without breaking confidentiality, we can coach to those gaps.

Self-reflection and self-awareness is something we have to do for ourselves. We can’t force others to do it. However, we can model and also create the conditions where self-reflection and self-awareness is possible.

• We can build reflection time into our meetings and schedules.

• We can share our reflections transparently (which doesn’t mean we have to share everything).

• We can also provide resources such as coaching for our team, and yes I am biased AND, as I mentioned last week, I also very deeply believe in and have seen evidence of the power of coaching within an organizational context from a third party.

For example, one of the teams we’ve been working with recently scored noticeably higher than the rest of the organization (who we are not working with, at least not yet) on the organization’s own psychological safety survey.

One of the things we’ve been working on with this team is - building in time for self-reflection and self-awareness.

It may seem counterintuitive, but this is all the more critical during times of upheaval and unpredictability.

We can’t afford NOT to be self-reflective, or it is all too easy to get caught up in panic, paralysis, and despair.

What self-reflection practices has your team incorporated into its day-to-day?