I don’t believe that mistakes in a business often happen because of lack of knowledge. They happen because of how founders think and react in the moment, when they’re faced with a challenge. To deal with such challenges and overcome them powerfully, self-awareness in leadership is crucial especially for you as a founder.

It is in fact quite common that you as founders react and respond to things immediately when you feel something is going wrong. We’ll possibly try to change direction, make a quick decision or say and do something that we later rethink. I know it feels necessary at the time but later, you realise it was rushed.

Sometimes as founders, you also get comfortable. Maybe too comfortable. What worked for you once becomes your default. You stop questioning it. You assume things will keep working the same way, even when the situation, circumstance or context has changed.

Also, as humans, we don’t like change. It’s too much effort. That’s why you avoid the difficult conversations. You hold back on making the difficult decisions because they make you uncomfortable and you tell yourself you’ll deal with this later.

Self-awareness in leadership as founders is not about overthinking everything you do. It’s about being able to see what is already happening – clearly.

When you’re self-aware you start to recognise these patterns. You notice that your decisions follow a certain way of thinking. You see how similar situations lead to similar outcomes. You begin to catch your own bias. You realise when you’re favouring an idea because it feels right, not because it actually is. You notice when your past experiences are shaping your current decisions.

A lot of these behaviours connect directly to how you naturally operate. If you’re interested in knowing more about this and understand in a bit more depth, you can read my blog on different types of entrepreneurs.

So, what happens then? Self-awareness helps you stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Not because someone told you what to do differently, but because you can now see what caused the mistake in the first place. It actually makes you more conscious that you already are – so that you can overcome the self-doubts, make better decisions instead of just reacting and responding to things.

It shows up in decision-making where you pause before committing to something. It gives you a chance to ask yourself whether you are responding to pressure or actually choosing something that makes sense.

It shows up in how you communicate where you actually respond when someone tries to challenge you. so, instead of reacting defensively, you take a moment to understand what is being said.

It shows up when you’re under extreme pressure where things might not be working for you and you start to observe your instinct. for example – Are you rushing? Are you avoiding? Are you overcompensating in anyway? And when you’re aware – you respond intentionally.

It also shows up in how you handle your team where you start noticing patterns in how you delegate, how you share feedback and where you tend to either over-control or step-back too much.

To be honest, you do not need a complex system to become more self-aware. All you need to do is spend more time with yourself – alone and slow down enough to observe yourself.

Before making an important decision, pause. Not for long but enough to check what is driving it. Are you reacting to urgency or are you choosing intentionally?

Look at the decisions you’ve made in the past. Especially the ones that did not work. Instead of focusing on the outcome, try to understand the thinking behind the decision you made and why you made those decisions.

Notice what triggers you. How do you react in certain people or situations or circumstances that make you feel uncomfortable. These are people, situations or circumstances that will also always pressure you to react. Pay attention to those moments.

Lastly become a seeker. Keep on asking yourself the questions that you do not have answers for and discover them.

Self-awareness in leadership does not give you perfect decisions. It gives you the ability to make better ones. because once you can see your own patterns, it becomes difficult for you to ignore them. and when you stop blaming everything outside and start understand what is happening within, things begin to shift.