LEADERS
DIGEST
Are you
Hyper-Aware? BY ROSHAN THIRAN
This 2021, start the year well by connecting the dots
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If you want to know your past, look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future, look into your present actions.
A few years ago, I wrote about Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee book Primal Leadership which references “CEO disease” as a major cause of organisational issues and confusion. Basically, the CEO disease is “the information vacuum around a leader created when people withhold important (and sometimes unpleasant) information.” Lately, we see numerous instances of “CEO Disease” in many organizations, especially in this COVID-19 era, where so many things seem uncertain and unclear. The CEO disease happens when the CEO is in denial of the real state of the business and is not open to criticism or bad news. In the past, this was a norm, where many boards were filled with directors who are never critical of the CEOs performance (and focused more on keeping their board seat). Today, many CEOs and leaders have significant blind spots and have no clue to them having this disease. But there is a vaccine for this disease. The antidote for this disease: Hyper-awareness
Hyperawareness, not Self-Awareness “The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them,” declared retired 4-star general and former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell. “They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care.” No one welcomes bad news about themselves, but self-aware leaders not only accept feedback, they even seek it out. They do so because they want to keep learning and growing. Without awareness there is no growth. But that is not hyper-awareness. It’s just the starting point.
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Issue 47 I January 2021
As we start 2021, a key for us, if we want to succeed and survive the bad economic state and confused world, is to have clarity of the various issues and challenge around us with deep understanding of our strengths, opportunities and the various threats (both real and potential) that surround us. I call this hyperawareness. The deeper the hyper-awareness obtained, the greater the leader will have options and possibilities to lead forward. Yet most leaders have no time for reflection, observation, and to take stock of the issues and challenges there are being faced with. Hyper-awareness can only happen when we understand what the “dots” are and start connecting them one by one. You can only do this when you have deep organisational self-awareness first. Organisational self-awareness is simply being conscious of your strengths and understanding what the real issues, challenges and innovations that are happening in our industry, space and community. xxxx
Constant Hyper-Awareness Is Key Constant hyper-awareness is critical because your strengths, which may have gotten you to where you are in the past, may become an issue area today. Years ago, we promoted a high performing individual contributor to a managerial role. He was great in details, executed well and had strong process skills. Once promoted, he had significant problems with his team. His strength in process rigour and execution became his weakness as he micro-managed instead of empowering his team. Neither could his strength of individual execution be translated to the team environment. We all saw these weaknesses playing out but he just could not see why he was not succeeding. Hyper-awareness is extremely challenging as it is difficult to see in you what others see so easily. So how do we get started in this journey of awareness?
