In modern organizations, the speed of change and human transition is significantly accelerating.

If you are a team member or a leader, you’ll need to learn and adapt quickly to succeed in your job. According to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2023, we have to change 44% of our skills by 2027 across industries and jobs[1]. Learning agility is therefore a key dimension for leaders in 21st Century organizations[2].

In this blog article, I will discuss how to better build self-knowledge and self-awareness as a leader.

This is to help you better transition between leadership roles by using the so-called ‘Johari Window’.
I will include the leadership pipeline concept in the discussion to expand perspectives on leadership.

Leadership role transitions.

Research from 2004 suggest that only 25% of executives in organizations were seen as fully transitioned[2].

They simply hadn’t transitioned fully into their leadership role and wasn’t doing what was expected of effective executive leaders[2]. The majority were still perceived as acting like lower-level managers and individual contributors (specialists)[2]. A follow-up study in 2008 showed that only 16% were seen as fully transitioned[2].

In fact, making a transition at work in leadership is often ranked more challenging than other life challenges[3].

So, more challenging than even bereavement, divorce or personal health issues[3].
That tells a lot about the struggles that leaders face when they transition between roles.
Often the transitions are high impact, high-stakes affecting the broader company or organization[3].

Mckinsey research also shows that between 27-46% of executive leadership transitions fail, almost half of them[3].

Those numbers are terrifying at best. Why? Because if leaders struggle with their leadership transition, the performance of their direct reports gets 15% lower[3]. Furthermore, the direct reports will also be 20% more likely to be disengaged or leave their job and organization[3].

Often leadership transitions happen more frequently, but you don’t get much help as a new leader on:

  • How to learn to make the transition successfully
  • Your weaknesses, derailers, blind spots or unknown areas that affect your leadership
  • Your team’s climate as you transition to the new leadership role
  • Your effective on-boarding or in-boarding to the new leadership role

Leaders are very often underprepared and undersupported during their transition to the new leadership role[3].

Way too much “you’ll find out by yourself”. Not enough tailored training or coaching support. Leadership transitions matter for organizational performance, but they’re often overlooked as one-off events. They are often hands-off transitions where leaders have to self-manage their own transition, which is very difficult[3].

Leaders advancing hierarchically will often see that feedback decreases the higher the leadership role level.

Let’s in the next part look at how to change that to make better leadership transitions.

Introducing ‘The Johari Window’.

The Johari Window is a great visual four pane window model developed in 1955 by the American psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham to better understand interpersonal social dynamics and self-awareness[4].

The word ‘Johari’ actually combines their two names (fun fact 🙂 ).

The model consists of four panes or squares representing your self and others: what is known to self, not know to your self, known to others and not known to others (see Figure 1 below).

Each pane in The Johari Window in Figure 1 represents aspects of your self[4]:

  • Open area or arena → is what you and others know about you:
    The larger the open area becomes, the better the relationships, the better your leadership transition.
  • Blind area → is what others know about you that you are unaware of:
    You can reduce your blind spots and area by asking for and acting on feedback.
  • Hidden area or façade → is what you know about yourself, that others don’t know:
    Often it’s hidden or avoided activities covered by the façade, which can be minimized by self-disclosure of information.
  • Unknown area → is your creative unknown potential, what is unknown to others and ourselves:
    You will be unaware of the potential you have until you discover it through observation, coaching, mentoring, sparring etc.
Figure 1: Adapted from ‘The Johari Window’ by Luft and Ingham (1955)[4].

You can also think of The Johari Window as a house with four different rooms:

  1. The first room is open or public.
    ↳ Everyone knows what happens in the room (read: about you).
  2. The second room is the blind room.
    ↳ Others see what happens in the room, you don’t.
  3. The third room is the hidden room.
    ↳ People only see your façade as you keep things to yourself
  4. The fourth room is the unknown room.
    ↳ No one knows what happens inside this room as it is all dark (the lights are turned off).

I hope this helps give you a better overview of The Johari Window. Next let’s apply it to leadership transitions.

How to build self-awareness for your leadership transition.

When we talk about leadership transitions, the Leadership Pipeline concept offers a foundational architecture to consider leadership.

It describes how leadership is different depending on the leadership role you have.

So, there are certain leadership transition passages between each and every leadership roles in an organization as shown in Figure 2 below. It varies with the size of the organization: From Leading Self (individual contributor) to Leading Others, from Leading Others to Leading Leaders, from Leading Leaders to Functional Leader and from Functional Leader to Business Leader[5].

Figure 2: Adapted from the Leadership Pipeline concept[2,5].

The Leadership Pipeline concept outlines three key elements of leadership transitions[5]:

  • Work values – what you as a leader believe is important to do in your job and find most valuable to the organization:
    → This becomes the focus for your effort and the work you do.
  • Time application – the things you as a leader spend your time on in your leadership role:
    → The things you spend your time on that changes with each leadership role.
  • Skills requirements – the capabilities required to execute your new leadership responsibilities:
    → These are the leadership skills or competencies that changes with the leadership transitions.

For each leadership transition there will be elements of your previous role and skills base that you need to let go of or do less (unlearn), preserve or continue to use and add on or do more or better (learn)[2].

Often when you as a leader face significant pressure, unfamiliar or very complex obstacles or great uncertainty from changes like a transition you tend to return to the behavioral default patterns where you feel most competent, confident and comfortable[2]. These are normal human reactions.

That is what makes leadership transitions challenging and why many struggle with them.

Leaders-in-transition will typically be quite guarded and reveal very little of themselves because they are cautious or even anxious when starting their new leadership role[2]. So, as shown in Figure 3 below, they will only show a very small open area when they exchange with others as a self-preservation mechanism.

In fact, if leaders transition to become a leader for their old team, where they were previously “one of the team members”, it may come with challenges[6]. The previous peer team members may now also minimize their Johari Window open area and be reluctant to be candid with their new leader because the power dynamics, whether liked or not, will change[6].

This great Havard Business Review article provides some excellent ways of noticing what happens in the team, to better be able to support and opening up conversations and build psychological safety by verbalizing openness to candid views and feedback.

Leaders-in-transition will typically take on a façade of self-confidence to appear confident that will cover their expanded hidden and avoided areas[2].

The façade, among other things, covers your self-doubts, concerns and reservations about your own competence to cope with the demands and do a great job in your new leadership role[2].

Figure 3: Adapted from ‘The Johari Window’[4] and Leadership Pipeline concept[2,5].

So, the façade and not revealing too much about yourself becomes the most comfortable behavioral pattern, because no one really likes to appear incompetent. And that is what you start out as, when you have to learn and adapt new work values, how to apply your time and skills required to lead in the new role.

Because leaders-in-transition do not initially disclose much about themselves to preserve the façade, the open area will be small. The team and stakeholders haven’t yet experienced the leader in the new role either, so their blind area may also start out smaller as shown in Figure 3.

The leaders-in-transition will most likely not be consciously aware of their own potential such as qualities, capabilities and talents within the unknown expanded area in this case when it comes to their new leadership role[2].

To become a great leader, self-knowledge and self-awareness is therefore key to develop and transition successfully.

However, the challenge for leaders-in-transition is to disclose their hidden or avoided areas and make themselves open to feedback, so they can really transition well[2]. It’s again this part about not wanting to appear incompetent to their team and manager that influences them. Not loosing their sense of control and power.

To expand the open area in Figure 3, it really requires three key competencies:

  • Courage → to do what they are afraid of, being vulnerable, disclosing their own shortcomings and doubts and being comfortable with being exposed
  • Humility → to acknowledge that they don’t know it all and need to unlearn and learn new skills for the new leadership role
  • Listening → asking for and being open to feedback from the team, peers and stakeholders

If you are a leader-in-transition here’s some useful questions (related to the transition elements) that can help you build your self-awareness through own reflection, feedback and shared discovery[2,5: adapted]:

  • What has made you successful so far in your leadership career?
    – Can you succeed in your new leadership role by relying on the same strengths?
    – If not, what critical skills do you need to develop?
  • What tasks are you drawn towards and just seem to want to do?
    – Are these tasks and skills the right ones to focus on in your new leadership role?
  • What aspects of your new leadership role are critical to success, but you prefer not to focus on?
    – Why is that?
    – How can you compensate for your potential blind spots? (learn, unlearn and adapt)
  • Which of your tasks or activities add the most value to the business or organization?
    – Focus on the 3-4 main tasks.
    – Things most valued by your manager, peers, stakeholders and even customers.
  • When do you feel you are a success in the new leadership role?
    – Your own and your manager perspective.
  • What do you spend the most of your time on?
    – Choose the 3-4 most time consuming things.
    – What percentage of your time is that?
  • What do you want to spend more time on, but aren’t able to find time for?
    – Select 2-3 things here.
    – How can you reprioritize and make time available for what you want to spend more time on?
  • What have you as a leader been doing well, effectively?
    – Ask feedback from team, peers and stakeholders.
  • What can you do even better in your leadership role?
    – Ask feedback from team, peers and stakeholders.
  • How do you feel when I behave like this as a leader?
    – Ask feedback from team, peers and stakeholders.
  • What’s the 2-3 most important skills, you have realized that you need in the new leadership role?
    – How can you learn those skills, behaviors?
    – Where do you need support?
  • As you know yourself, what personal limiting beliefs and barriers may challenge your transition?
    – What habits in your work as a leader would you like to change?
    – What personal changes do you need to make?
    – Which are most urgent and impactful?
  • What did your predecessor do that you should continue doing?
  • What did your predecessor do that you should stop doing?

Here’s another small exercise that you can use as a leader-in-transition to disclose more and learn:

→ Select 5 adjectives that best describe you as a leader.
→ Ask your team members and stakeholders for 5 adjectives to describe you as a leader.
→ Categorize them in each Johari quadrant.
→ Discuss results with your team, stakeholders or coach for feedback and insights.
→ Use the gathered input to make an action plan to change behaviors, learn skills and unlearn.

Try this the next 60 days and see how it improves your leadership transition.

Now, let me hear in the comments, what have been your biggest leadership transition challenges?

Partner with me ↓
I help adventurous leaders, teams and professionals reach their true potential, healthy high performance and well-being.

If you’re currently a leader-in-transition, then whenever you need help to embark on your leadership transition journey, get in touch and I’m here to partner with you every step of the way.

References.
[1]World Economic Forum (2023) The Future of Jobs Report 2023. Available at: World Economic Forum (weforum.org). (Accessed 2 May 2023).
[2]Freedman, A. M. (2011) Some Implications of Validations of the Leadership Pipeline Concept: Guidelines for Assisting Managers-in-Transition, The Psychologist-Manager Journal 14(2): pp. 140-159. Available at: Taylor & Francis Online (tandfonline.com). Accessed 1 July 2023).
[3]Keller, S. (2018) Successfully transitioning to new leadership roles. Available at: McKinsey (mckinsey.com). (Accessed 20 June 2023).
[4]Luft, J. and Ingham, H. (1955) “The Johari window, a graphic model of interpersonal awareness,” Proceedings of the Western Training Laboratory in Group Development. Los Angeles: University of California.
[5]Charan, R., Drotter, S. and Noel, J. (2011) The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build The Leadership Powered Company, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., San Francisco: pp. 1-58.
[6]Reill, A. (2023) Encouraging Your Team to Be Open with You (as a New Manager), Havard Business Review. Available at: Ascend (hbr.org). (Accessed 20 July 2023).