Leadership: Leaders, Followers, Environments

Elements of self-awareness

Personality is composed of the attributes and behaviors that define a person. A large number of personality dimensions and “intelligences” exist, ranging from the emotional to the social and the artistic, and from the cognitive (or mental) to the creative and physical. Even the field of neuroscience has contributed to our understanding of leadership since certain behaviors are linked to brain function and activity.¹⁴ Several decades ago, Mintzberg suggested that left brain/right brain differences are related to leadership and management skills and behaviors.¹⁵

There are at least two reasons why we try to measure and categorize personality components. First, personality has an influence on how we think, feel, and behave, how we fit in to organizations, and how we interact with others, and it's important to understand it. Second, greater appreciation of personality and its many manifestations can lead to more effective leaders, managers, and people. As the character Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood) noted in the movie Magnum Force: “A man's got to know his limitations.”

But there is no best way to categorize the elements of self-awareness or quantify personality dimensions. How and why people do what they do are not simple questions. Scholars have identified a number of areas where it is useful to have greater self-awareness, notably interpersonal skills and behaviors, attitudes toward change, and cognitive or learning styles. All are relevant to an appreciation ...