SELF-AWARENES: A Prerequisite For Effective Leadership?

For busy leaders preoccupied with the hard work of making their business a success, talk of self-awareness can seem touchy-feely. After all, these leaders' work is to make sense of what’s going on in their own lives, relationships, businesses, and their external environment.

Reflecting on why self-awareness can be so difficult for leaders has reminded me of the words of Daniel Kahneman(in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow), who says:

“Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.”


But how do leaders ignore their ignorance (intentional avoidance even) my of their own weaknesses, blind spots, and fatal flaws? Your thoughts?