Self Awareness is the Leader's Superpower!
Fail to embrace these, and you risk falling behind!
Part III - Top 5 Tips For Retail Leadership In 2025!
Deep Self-Awareness: The Leadership Superpower
In the previous edition, we explored how coaching helps uncover blind spots and elevate your leadership. But awareness without deliberate action won’t get you far.
I have learned over the years of leadership that most leaders skip this step - understanding the "why.”
It is essential, not just for avoiding certain situations or making better decisions, but for uncovering the hidden ripple effects your actions create within yourself and your team.
However, the “why” isn’t always neat or comfortable. In fact, it’s often messy.
The Messy Why and Real Growth
In my upcoming book, I have entire chapter dedicated what I call “The Messy Why.” The Why is uncomfortable. But if you allow it to occur, authentically, it can be transformative in your leadership.
In my experience with working with high achieving executives and teams - self-awareness isn’t just a skill;
It’s a habit of asking better questions.
Staying curious about your decisions.
Continuously uncovering the patterns driving your leadership.
Here’s the central message
Leaders - Stop avoiding the messy “why” and embrace it, you will unlock the ability to lead with greater impact, purpose, and resilience.
What i’ve found is that most leaders are not ready to explore the real “why” behind their leadership.
Why? (pun intended)
Your “why” will reveal aspects of yourself you’d rather keep hidden—mistakes you’ve made, conversations you’ve avoided, or patterns you’ve struggled to change. Yet, it’s within this discomfort that true self-awareness and transformation are born.
That’s why Deep Self-Awareness is the next critical trait.
Real self-awareness isn’t just about understanding what you do.
It’s about uncovering why you do it. It’s about recognizing the patterns behind your reactions and decisions, especially in challenging circumstances.
While coaching and community can help highlight the gaps, self-awareness provides the clarity to address them head-on.
Self-Awareness: A Leader’s Competitive Edge
Over the last decade or more - Self-Awareness has become a buzzword or a feel-good exercise.
But in reality - it’s the difference between mediocre leadership and transformative impact. Yet, most leaders reduce it to a checklist of strengths and weaknesses, barely scratching the surface of what true self-awareness requires.
Real self-awareness isn’t clean, or neat, it’s messy, raw, and deeply personal.
And begins with the uncomfortable questions, the ones we instinctively avoid:
Why do you avoid delegating, even when you’re overwhelmed?
Why does receiving feedback make you defensive?
Why does uncertainty trigger a need to control?
These questions aren’t easy, but they matter. They expose patterns that go beyond leadership mechanics and into the deeper forces driving your decisions.
In my upcoming book, “You’re Doing Too Much”, part of what I address is helping leaders understand that your “why” doesn’t just create clarity - it reshapes how you lead.
The Ripple Effects of Ignoring Your Why
When leaders ignore the messy “why,” the consequences often show up in several subtle and not so subtle damaging ways:
Missed Opportunities for Growth
Ignoring and avoiding uncomfortable but necessary conversations or decisions.Erosion of Team Confidence
You unintentionally project indecision or inconsistency onto their teams.A Diluted Leadership Brand
Your leadership brand becomes inconsistent, eroding credibility and making it harder to leave a lasting impression as a visionary leader.Drained Capacity from Reactivity
Without clarity you spend more energy reacting instead of strategizing. This lack of “mental margin” leaves no room for innovation or long-term personal progress.Limited Future Impact
You begin to set (subtle) limits on your ability to scale your influence. As a result you risk stagnation.Culture of defensiveness This culture emerges, not simply because feedback wasn’t handled constructively, but because the tone and timing of your response signal that growth isn’t truly valued.
The truth is, ignoring your “why” doesn’t make the issues go away, it just delays their impact, often until it’s too late to mitigate.
Self-Awareness as Your Competitive Edge
After over 30+ years of leadership and coaching executives experience, I’ve learned that most leaders don’t go this deep because they are nervous about what they will uncover about themselves.
It’s far easier to focus on external factors - blaming market conditions, team performance, or flawed processes - than to confront the internal forces shaping your leadership style. But the leaders who do dig deeper gain something most never achieve:
A true competitive edge.
Here’s why - Self Awareness in its purest form:
Builds credibility. Teams trust leaders who understand their own blind spots and work to address them.
It accelerates decision-making. When you know your triggers and biases, you make more thoughtful and intentional choices.
It improves team dynamics. Leaders who understand their impact create stronger connections and foster a culture of openness and trust.
But here’s the kicker: self-awareness doesn’t happen in isolation.
It requires honest reflection, constructive feedback, and a willingness to have hard conversations.
You need a process - a framework - to peel back the layers of your leadership tendencies. This is where coaching and community come into play, helping you strip away ego and get to the heart of what’s driving your behavior.
This is why Self-Awareness (S) is the cornerstone our Approachability S.M.I.L.E. Framework. It’s not just about knowing your tendencies but getting to the root of them.
Why do you gravitate toward certain decisions?
Why do you lead the way you do?
What drives your reactions in high-pressure situations?
True self-awareness requires leaders to recognize not just their patterns but also the unintended ripple effects of those patterns, on their team’s performance, morale, and overall culture.
The second aspect we cover in the Self Aware is your response. My goal is to push you to ask the uncomfortable, unpopular questions:
Why do I respond to criticism the way I do, and what does that say about my leadership?
Am I leading in alignment with my values, or have I drifted into patterns that don’t serve my team?
How do my emotional triggers influence the decisions I make under pressure?
The best leaders don’t just ask these questions; they wrestle with the answers.
And when they do, they move beyond surface-level change to lead with intention, clarity, and impact.
This deep self-awareness doesn’t just transform the leader it will impact your family, teams and organizations.
But self-awareness is only the beginning. The next step is turning that internal clarity into outward action. It’s about embracing Transformation Over Management—leading boldly to create meaningful, lasting change rather than just maintaining the status quo.
Get ready for the next edition!
Please comment and share with a fellow leader or your team!
The Future of Retail Leadership Development - 2025 Study
Retail Leadership development hasn’t kept up with the pace of retail. That’s the truth!
Everyday you face a growing gap between the challenges you navigate and the support you receive to overcome them. This survey is your chance to change that.
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Together, we will reshape retail leadership for the future.
Stay intentional and I will see you at the top!
Leadership isn’t about fitting into a system. Honestly it’s about expanding beyond it.
We define Growth as constant elevation which causes expansion. You don’t growth by yourself, you need community.
This is where THE CAMPUS steps in.
THE CAMPUS is not another training program, it’s a leadership movement. A third place where leaders go to deconstruct the predictable, uncover their untapped potential, and craft a leadership approach that’s as dynamic as the challenges they face.
We’re here to redefine what leadership development looks like—on your terms, at your pace, and with the depth you’ve been missing.
Are you ready to move beyond what’s been handed to you and lead differently?
THE CAMPUS is where it begins.
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