Emotional self-awareness: How executives can use it to improve performance
Debbie Morrison • March 21, 2023

As organisations continue to become more complex, global, and diverse, leaders are increasingly expected to not only have strong technical skills but also possess a high level of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to identify, understand, and manage one's own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.


In leadership, emotional intelligence plays a critical role in building strong relationships, promoting effective communication, and creating a positive work environment. Yet many executives and boards still fail to fully appreciate the positive impact emotional self-awareness can have on not only their own performance but that of their teams and the business as a whole.


Studies have shown that leaders with high emotional intelligence are more likely to be effective in their roles and achieve better outcomes for their organisations. In fact, Research by EQ provider TalentSmart shows that emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor of performance. 


In this blog post, we explore the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership, with a focus on the role of emotional self-awareness in improving executive performance. We discuss strategies that executives can use to develop emotional self-awareness and provide real-world examples of leaders who have successfully improved their leadership effectiveness through emotional intelligence.




What is Emotional Self-Awareness?

Emotional self-awareness is the ability to observe and understand one's own emotions, as well as their impact on behaviour and decision-making. It involves being aware of the emotions one is experiencing in the moment, as well as recognizing patterns in emotional responses over time. For executives, emotional self-awareness is particularly important because it can help them navigate the complex and often stressful demands of leadership. Without it, executives can find it difficult to effectively regulate their own emotions, as well as empathise with the emotions of others.


Leaders with high emotional self-awareness are able to notice their own emotional triggers, understand the impact of their emotions on their behaviour and decision-making, and take steps to manage their emotions in a way that promotes positive outcomes for themselves and their team. 71% of employers surveyed by CareerBuilder said they value EQ over IQ when hiring new employees, reporting that employees with high emotional intelligence are more likely to stay calm under pressure, resolve conflict effectively, and respond to co-workers with empathy.


Additionally, emotional self-awareness is closely tied to authenticity and transparency in leadership. Leaders who are able to acknowledge and express their emotions in an honest and constructive way are often viewed as more approachable and relatable by their team, which can improve trust and collaboration. Conversely, leaders who lack emotional self-awareness may be viewed as distant or unapproachable, which can hinder their ability to effectively lead their team.


How emotional self-awareness can improve leadership effectiveness

Despite the challenges in measuring direct correlations between Emotional self-awareness can improve leadership effectiveness in a number of ways. A study published in the Journal of Management Education found that self-awareness was positively related to job performance, as well as job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The researchers found that self-awareness was particularly important for leaders who had to navigate complex social situations and work with diverse groups of people.


Here are some examples how self-awareness can drive performance:

  1. Better decision-making: When leaders are self-aware of their emotions, they can make better decisions. They can identify when their emotions are influencing their thinking and take steps to regulate those emotions before making important decisions.

  2. More effective communication: Self-aware leaders are better able to communicate their thoughts and feelings in a clear and concise way. They can identify when their emotions are affecting their communication and adjust their approach accordingly.

  3. Increased empathy: Leaders who are emotionally self-aware are more empathetic towards their team members. They are better able to understand their team's perspectives and needs, which can help them build stronger relationships and improve collaboration.

  4. Improved conflict resolution: Leaders who are self-aware are better equipped to handle conflicts. They can see when their emotions are getting in the way of resolving a conflict and take steps to manage those emotions. They are also better able to understand the emotions of others and work towards a mutually beneficial resolution.

  5. Increased resilience: Self-aware leaders are better equipped to handle stress and adversity. They can identify when they are feeling overwhelmed or burned out and take steps to prioritise self-care. This can help them maintain their energy and focus, even in challenging situations.


In order to create a safe environment for their employees, leaders should be open about their own feelings and attributes, as well as any challenges they face. By demonstrating through their own actions that they value individuality, well-being and mental health in their team members, leaders make it more likely that these employees will be satisfied with their jobs--thereby increasing the likelihood of retaining them.




Strategies for Developing Emotional Self-Awareness

Longstanding cultural norms, favouring a strong emphasis on technical skills and quantifiable results have led to a culture where soft skills such as emotional self-awareness are undervalued or overlooked. 


Traditional leadership skills such as business acumen and technical knowledge are often seen as ‘essential skills’ for success in a leadership role, largely because they are often more tangible and measurable than soft skills. Business results can be quantified and technical knowledge can be assessed. Whereas, emotional self-awareness is more difficult to measure.


This type of thinking often means that few executives realise the impact that emotions can have on leadership effectiveness and team performance. Yet, soft skills such as emotional self-awareness are becoming increasingly important in today's workplace. As the workforce becomes more diverse and complex, leaders need to be able to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics and build strong relationships with their team members. This requires a high level of emotional intelligence, which includes emotional self-awareness.


There are several strategies that executives can use to develop emotional self-awareness. Here are some of the most effective techniques:

  1. Mindfulness: Mindfulness is a practice that involves paying attention to the present moment without judgement. It can help executives become more aware of their emotions and the physical sensations that accompany them. Mindfulness practices such as meditation and deep breathing can help executives develop a greater sense of emotional self-awareness.

  2. Journaling: Journaling can be an effective way for executives to reflect on their emotions and experiences. By taking time to write about their thoughts and feelings, executives can develop a greater understanding of their emotional patterns and triggers. They can also identify areas where they need to improve and set goals for themselves.

  3. Feedback: Seeking feedback from others can be a powerful way for executives to develop emotional self-awareness. Feedback from colleagues, mentors, or coaches can provide insights into how others perceive their emotional behaviour. This can help executives identify blind spots and develop strategies for improving their emotional self-awareness.

  4. Self-reflection: Taking time for self-reflection can help executives become more aware of their emotional patterns and triggers. They can reflect on their emotional reactions to different situations, identify what emotions they are feeling and what is causing them. This can help executives develop a greater sense of self-awareness and identify areas where they need to improve.

  5. Therapy or counselling: Working with a therapist or counsellor can help executives develop greater emotional self-awareness. A mental health professional can help executives identify their emotional patterns and triggers, and provide guidance on how to manage their emotions in a healthy way.


Some of the world’s most recognisable business leaders have adopted self-awareness practices to help improve their own performance but also help shape company culture.


Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft: Nadella has credited his practice of mindfulness meditation with helping him develop greater emotional self-awareness. He has said that mindfulness has helped him become more aware of his emotions and better able to manage stress. Under his leadership, Microsoft has seen a significant shift towards a more collaborative and empathetic company culture.


Similarly, Jeff Weiner, former CEO of LinkedIn has been vocal about the importance of emotional self-awareness and has encouraged his team members to practise mindfulness meditation. He has also emphasised the importance of empathy in leadership and has worked to create a culture of compassion and collaboration at LinkedIn. Under his leadership, LinkedIn saw significant growth and was eventually acquired by Microsoft.


How to identify executives with good emotional self-awareness.

Leaders with good emotional self-awareness tend to demonstrate the qualities most commonly associated with high performance, however, when hiring executives it can be useful to look for specific traits and behaviours. There are a number of strategies that executive boards can use to identify executives with good emotional self-awareness, we have highlighted the most important below:


  1. Conduct Emotional Intelligence assessments: Emotional Intelligence (EI) assessments can provide objective data on an executive's level of self-awareness. These assessments typically involve a series of self-report questionnaires or situational judgment tests that evaluate an individual's ability to recognize, understand, and manage their own emotions.

  2. Look for emotional self-regulation skills: Executives who possess good emotional self-awareness are typically skilled at regulating their emotions in high-stress situations. Look for executives who demonstrate an ability to stay calm, composed, and focused in challenging situations.

  3. Observe communication skills: Executives with high emotional self-awareness tend to be effective communicators, both verbally and non-verbally. Look for executives who are skilled at conveying their own emotions and picking up on the emotions of others in a conversation.

  4. Review past performance: Reviewing an executive's past performance can provide valuable insights into their level of emotional self-awareness. Look for executives who have a track record of making sound decisions, managing conflicts effectively, and maintaining positive relationships with colleagues.

  5. Conduct behavioural interviews: Behavioral interviews are a type of interview that focuses on past behaviour as an indicator of future performance. Use questions that probe for examples of how an executive has managed their emotions in challenging situations, how they respond to stress, and how they have handled difficult interpersonal dynamics in the work



As we have established, perhaps not as easily measurable as technical skills or business acumen, self-awareness is a notable factor in the performance and effectiveness of executive leaders. Increasingly, this skill is playing a vital role in not only shaping business decisions but creating safe, inclusive workplace cultures that enable greater collaboration and foster an environment of innovation, idea sharing and creative expression. 


By practising mindfulness, seeking feedback, reflecting on emotions, and taking responsibility for emotions, executives can enhance their emotional self-awareness and become more effective leaders capable of tackling complex challenges, uncertainty and rapid change.


At ELR Executive we have over 20 years of experience helping FMCG and Food and Beverage organisations identify and attract the right talent to help achieve better business outcomes. If you'd like to learn more about how we can help you hire emotionally self-aware leadership talent who can improve performance outcomes for your organisation, speak to us today.

Your Culture Report Won’t Show You This

By John Elliott • June 6, 2025
On paper, they were fully resourced. No complaints logged. No formal red flags. Delivery metrics holding steady. But behind closed doors, the signs were there. Delays. Fatigue. Silence in meetings where pushback used to live. And a growing sense that key people were leaning out, emotionally, if not yet physically. When the cracks finally showed, the conclusion was predictable: “We need more people.” But that wasn’t the real problem. The problem was trust. And most organisations never see it until it’s too late. The Hidden Cost of Disengagement In Gallup’s 2023 global workplace report , only 23% of employees worldwide reported being actively engaged at work. A staggering 59% identified as “quiet quitting”, psychologically detached, going through the motions, doing only what their job description demands. Source: Gallup Global Workplace Report 2023 Disengagement is expensive. But it’s also quiet. It doesn’t show up on a balance sheet. It doesn’t send a Slack message. Disengagement isn’t new, just silenced. And in executive teams, it looks different. It looks like polite agreement in strategy meetings. It looks like leaders shielding their teams from unrealistic demands, instead of confronting the system causing them. It looks like performance metrics still being met… while people emotionally check out. The issue isn’t always capability. It’s safety. Psychological, political, and professional. Many senior leaders don’t raise concerns, not because the problem isn’t real, but because they don’t believe they’ll be heard, supported, or protected if they do. And this is where the failure begins. The Leadership Lie No One Talks About We talk a lot about leadership capability. About experience, commercial acumen, execution strength. But we don’t talk enough about context. Every leadership hire walks into a culture they didn’t create. They inherit unwritten rules, quiet alliances, and legacy power structures. If those dynamics are broken, or if trust is fractured at the top, no amount of capability will compensate. According to a 2022 Deloitte mid-market survey, 64% of executives said culture was their top strategic priority. But only 27% said they actually measured it in a meaningful way. We say culture matters. But we rarely structure around it. And so new leaders walk in with pressure to perform, but little real insight into what the role will cost them emotionally, politically, or personally. We Don’t Hire for Trust. And It Shows. In executive search, the conversation is often dominated by pedigree and “fit.” But fit is often a euphemism for sameness. And sameness doesn't build trust, it maintains comfort. We rarely ask: Does this leader know how to build trust vertically and horizontally? Can they operate in a low-trust environment without becoming complicit? Will they challenge inherited silence, or unconsciously uphold it? Instead, we hire for confidence and clarity, traits that often mask what’s broken, rather than reveal it. And when those hires fail? We call it a mismatch. Or we cite the usual: “lack of alignment,” “wasn’t the right time,” “they didn’t land well with the team.” But the truth is often uglier: They were never set up to succeed. And no one told them until it was too late. The Cultural Infrastructure Is Missing One of the most damaging myths in leadership hiring is that great leaders will “make it work.” That if they’re tough enough, experienced enough, skilled enough, they’ll overcome any organisational dysfunction. But high-performance isn’t just personal. It’s systemic. It requires psychological safety. A clear mandate. The backing to make hard decisions. The freedom to speak the truth before it becomes a PR problem. When that infrastructure isn’t there, when the real power dynamics are unspoken, good leaders stop speaking too. And the silence spreads. What Trust Breakdown Really Looks Like Often, the signs of a trust breakdown don’t show up in dramatic ways. They surface subtly in patterns of underperformance that are easy to misread or excuse. You start to notice project delays, but no one flags the root cause. Teams keep things moving, quietly compensating for the bottlenecks rather than surfacing them. Not because they’re careless, but because they’ve learned that early honesty doesn’t always earn support. New leaders hesitate to make bold calls. Not because they lack conviction, but because the last time they did, they were left exposed. Board reports look flawless. Metrics track nicely. But spend five minutes on the floor, and the energy tells a different story. These are not resource issues. They’re relationship issues. And the data backs it. According to Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace report , just 23% of employees worldwide are actively engaged. Worse, around 60% are “quiet quitting.” That’s not just disengagement. It’s people doing only what’s safe, only what’s required, because trust has quietly eroded. Gallup also found that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement, a staggering figure that reinforces just how pivotal leadership trust is. When people don’t feel psychologically safe, they shut down. Not dramatically. Quietly. Invisibly. What’s breaking isn’t the org chart. It’s the ability to speak plainly and be heard. And by the time it’s visible? The damage is already done, and someone calls for a restructure. “Low engagement is estimated to cost the global economy $8.8 trillion, 9% of global GDP.” Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2023 So What’s the Real Takeaway? If you’re seeing performance issues, before you jump to headcount, ask a different question: Do the leaders in this business feel safe enough to tell the truth? Because if they don’t, the data you’re reading isn’t real. And if they do, but you’re not acting on it, then they’ll stop telling you. Leadership doesn’t fail in obvious ways anymore. It fails in the gap between what people know and what they’re allowed to say. And the price of that silence? Missed opportunity. Reputational damage. Cultural decay. Sometimes, the problem isn’t who you hired. It’s what you’ve made it unsafe to say.

The Energy’s Gone, But Everything Still Looks Fine

By John Elliott • May 27, 2025
Why Culture Decay in FMCG Is a Silent Threat to Performance It doesn’t start with resignations. It starts with something much quieter. A head of operations stops raising small problems in weekly meetings. A sales lead no longer defends a risky new SKU. A team member who used to push ideas now just delivers what they’re asked. Nothing breaks. Nothing explodes. It just... slows. And from the outside, everything still looks fine. The illusion of stability In food and beverage manufacturing, where teams run lean and pressure is constant, performance often becomes the proxy for culture. If products are shipping, if margins are intact, if reviews are clean, the assumption is: we're good. But that assumption is dangerous. According to Gallup's 2023 global workplace report, only 23% of employees worldwide are actively engaged, while a staggering 59% are "quiet quitting ", doing just enough to get by, with no emotional investment. And in Australia? Engagement has declined three years in a row. In a mid-market FMCG business, those numbers rarely show up on dashboards. But they show up in other ways: New ideas stall at the concept phase Team members stop challenging assumptions Execution becomes rigid instead of agile Everyone is "aligned" but no one is energised And by the time the board sees a drop in revenue, the belief that once drove the business is already gone. The emotional cost of cultural silence One thing we don’t talk about enough is what this does to leadership. When energy drains, leaders often become isolated. Not because they want to be, but because the organisation has lost the instinct to challenge, question, or stretch. I’ve seen CEOs second-guessing themselves in rooms full of agreement. Seen GMs miss red flags because nobody wanted to be "the problem". Seen founders mistake quiet delivery for deep buy-in. The emotional toll of unspoken disengagement is real. You’re surrounded by people doing their jobs. But no one’s really in it with you. And eventually, leaders stop stretching too. We train people to disengage without realising it Here’s the contradiction that most organisations won’t admit: We say we want initiative, but we reward obedience. The safest people get promoted The optimists get extra work The truth-tellers get labelled difficult So people learn to conserve energy. They learn not to challenge ideas that won’t land. They learn not to flag risks that won’t be heard. And over time, they stop showing up with their full selves. This isn't resistance. It's protection. And it becomes the default when innovation is punished, risk isn't buffered, and "alignment" becomes code for silence. Boards rarely see it in time Boards don’t ask about belief. They ask about performance. But belief is what drives performance. When culture begins to fade, it doesn't look like chaos. It looks like calm. It looks like compliance. But underneath, the organisation is hollowing out. By the time a board notices the energy is gone, it’s often because the financials have turned, and by then, the people who could've helped reverse the trend have already left. In a 2022 Deloitte study on mid-market leadership, 64% of executives said culture was their top priority, yet only 27% said they measured it with any rigour . If you don’t track it, you won’t protect it. And if you don’t protect it, don’t be surprised when it disappears. The real risk: you might not get it back Here’s what no one likes to admit: Not all cultures recover. You can try rebrands. You can run engagement campaigns. You can roll out leadership frameworks and off-sites and feedback platforms. But if belief has been neglected for too long, the quiet ones you depended on, the culture carriers, the stretchers, the informal leaders, they’re already checked out. Some have left. Some are still there physically but not emotionally. And some have started coaching others to play it safe. Once that happens, you're not rebuilding. You're replacing. So what do you do? Don’t listen for noise. Listen for absence. Absence of challenge. Absence of stretch. Absence of belief. Ask yourself: When was the last time someone in the business pushed back? Not rudely, but bravely? When did someone offer an idea that made others uncomfortable? When did a leader admit they were unsure and ask for help? Those are your indicators. Because healthy culture isn’t silent. It’s alive. It vibrates with tension, disagreement, contribution and care. If everything looks fine, but no one’s really leaning in? That’s your problem. And by the time it shows up in the numbers,t might already be too late.