From Susan David, IOC Director and Co-founder:

As coaches we often depend on our clients’ own self-awareness in shaping the coaching engagement. The client may, for instance, provide their perspective on a challenge, self-report how they are navigating it (e.g. through self-rated tools or measures) and reflect on others’ motivations and roles as they relate to the challenge.

While necessary, there are key weaknesses in our dependence on self-awareness. The paradox is that clients require self-awareness to know whether or not they are self-aware, and yet, blind spots are, by definition, blind. Tasha Eurich’s important book Insight practically explores the value and limitations of our own awareness.

As a complement to Insight, if you haven’t yet discovered NPR’s Invisibila podcast, it too is highly recommended. With recent features on emotions, unconscious biases, self-narratives, and power posing, this science-based and entertaining show explores the hidden forces that shape us.

From the publisher:

Most people feel like they know themselves pretty well. But what if you could know yourself just a little bit better—and with this small improvement, get a big payoff…not just in your career, but in your life?

Research shows that self-awareness – knowing who we are and how others see us – is the foundation for high performance, smart choices, and lasting relationships.  There’s just one problem: most people don’t see themselves quite as clearly as they could.

Fortunately, reveals organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich, self-awareness is a surprisingly developable skill. Integrating hundreds of studies with her own research and work in the Fortune 500 world, she shows us what it really takes to better understand ourselves on the inside - and how to get others to tell us the honest truth about how we come across.

Through stories of people who’ve made dramatic gains in self-awareness, she offers surprising secrets, techniques and strategies to help readers do the same – and how to use this insight to be more fulfilled, confident, and successful in life and in work.

* The 7 types of self-knowledge that self-aware people possess.
* The 2 biggest invisible roadblocks to self-awareness.
* Why approaches like therapy and journaling don't always lead to true insight
* How to stop your confidence-killing habits and learn to love who you are.
* How benefit from mindfulness without uttering a single mantra.
* Why other people don’t tell us the truth about ourselves – and how to find out what they really think.
* How to deepen our insight into our passions, gifts, and the blind spots that could be holding us back.
* How to hear critical feedback without losing your mojo.
* Why the people with the most power can often be the least-self-aware, and how smart leaders avoid this trap.
* The 3 building blocks for self-aware teams.
* How to deal with delusional bosses, clients, and coworkers.