Self-awareness
Whoever leads knows themselves, asks for the truth about themselves, and uses it.
What it means
What a leader believes about themselves and what their team experiences do not always match. The gap between the two views says more than any average. Whoever leads well looks for that gap, listens to it, and changes.
How to recognize it
What contradicts it
- Never checking what the leader believes about themselves against what their team experiences.
- Holding others accountable for their results and never holding yourself accountable for your own example.
What it asks of the organization
Look at leadership through several lenses at once: the leader’s own view, the team’s, observable behavior, and results in context. A single score gives false precision.
What it rests on
The report “Del Buen Gobierno al Buen Liderazgo” (2026, in Spanish), ch. 11: a dashboard of signals works better than a single score. Our reading: there is less outside perspective at the top, because everyone who could tell the leader the truth has something at stake in what the leader decides.
Sources
- Report (2026). Del Buen Gobierno al Buen Liderazgo [From Good Governance to Good Leadership], version 2.0, 12 chapters and 79 sources. CC BY 4.0 license (in Spanish). inusual.com
Good Leadership (2026). Principle 6: Self-awareness. Version 1.0. buenliderazgo.org/en/principles/self-awareness/. License CC BY 4.0.