HBR Women at Work Boxed Set (6 Books)

4

Why Self-Awareness Isn’t Doing More to Help Women’s Careers

by Tasha Eurich

Self-awareness is the foundational leadership skill of the twenty-first century. Leaders who know who they are, and how they’re seen by others, are more effective, confident, respected, and promotable.1

When I speak to business leaders about our seven-year-plus research program on self-awareness, one of the most common questions I get is whether we’ve found any gender differences.

First, the data: Research has shown that women possess a slight self-awareness advantage over men. In one survey study of 275 people, we found that women’s self-ratings of self-awareness are higher (though not dramatically) than men’s. Other research has shown that women are rated slightly ...