Leadership blind spot: working on self awareness

There are a few reasons why many colleagues have lauded me as someone they appreciate and an effective leader. What has aided greatly in my being a valued professional is my self awareness. Whether from being the only Nikkei student in day (English/French) school, the only woman in an university course, the only Canadian in a room full of Europeans*, or in a minority by being neurodivergent (which in itself merits a separate post or several), I have always felt or objectively been conspicuously different. 

Everyone is unique, of course, but I have looked foreign everywhere in the four (Western) countries where I have lived. Due to these circumstances, I am (as judged by body language and values) too westernized to fit into Japanese culture since I never lived in Japan, although I can speak the language at a near native level. To date, I have only felt like I belonged in one place: New York City.

Being significantly different to a relatively homogenous group of people not only means that I notice when I am treated differently, but also when I react differently because my frame of reference is not the predominant one. Thus it has been critical to me to understand who I am, how I prefer to act, and what values I uphold. It also means that I tend to be open minded when meeting new people: I never presume to "have their number" or pigeon hole anyone solely based on first impressions or shallow conversation.

It is also clear that, as I am often the only second generation Japanese Canadian woman that people have become personally acquainted with, that I have had to frequently field at best benign stereotypes and at worst, harsh prejudices. I have repeatedly discovered that their assumptions of what type of individual I am, whether favourable or not, was extremely different to my self image. 

Experience has proven to me that only clear and consistent communication both in word and deed, of being "true to myself" can, if slowly, mitigate gaps in perception much of the time. Fortunately I have thus far managed to find open-minded people, aided most likely by a higher incidence rate of neurodiversity, to study and work with.

In the business realm, establishing trust by behaving consistently and reliably is critical, and being realistic about your strengths and weaknesses, growing both as an individual and as a professional, judiciously choosing what to be open about and what to keep private, are all facilitated by working on self awareness. Below is a rendering of the Johari Window courtesy of Google Gemini which I recommend as a framework to continually work on ourselves.

Have you already set goals for your own development? What has been the most effective activities you've undertaken for this journey?

 *I am well aware that Europeans, US citizens, and Canadians are not monolithic. Nonetheless, I have generally found that monotheistic religions and those raised in a culture that was shaped by them have more in common than those that evolved with polytheistic doctrines. 

Courtesy of Google Gemini, a Johari Window Theory infographic extract which I generated.