Leadership Academy Part 3: Looking Out the Window

Kinnear Centre - Banff Centre

I enjoyed the Leadership Academy at Banff but I am glad to be back among colleagues and friends at Bow Valley College.  I am even more glad to be back with my family.  I have come back with a renewed passion for the work I do and I would like the opportunity to share with you this renewed passion in hopes that you too may feel inspired.  Over the next few weeks, I will share some interesting ideas I gleaned from the Academy in building an informal leadership academy of our own.  I do so because I believe we are all leaders and the need for us to lead in what we do has never been greater.


At Banff, I certainly was fortunate to look out some beautiful windows at the most extraordinary landscape in the universe.  Yet, the most revealing window I looked through was my own shared view of the world.  The Leadership Academy quickly started off with an awareness exercise, the Johari Window, as a precursor to thinking about leadership.  I will admit I did not see the connection.  We answered the twenty question exercise, unawares of the intent of the exercise, totalled our scores in two unlabelled categories, and then plotted our results on a diagram in the shape of a window.  We drew one vertical line at the score for the first category and a horizontal line for the second category in the middle of this window.  


Once complete, we reconvened as a large group of 60 to learn what the window and our results meant.  The Johari Window divides into four quadrants based on the intersection of our own personal horizontal and vertical line.  The upper-left quadrant was our OPEN window pane indicating how much is known to our self and to others.  The upper-right quadrant was our BLIND spot indicating how much others know about us that we do not likely know about ourselves.  The bottom-left quadrant reveals what is HIDDEN, what we knew about ourselves but have not disclosed to others.  The bottom-right quadrant reflected the UNKNOWN, what we and others did know about our personal selves.  


In small groups at round tables, we shared our windows and we then discussed, quite actively, how this related to leadership. We observed that everyone's Johari Window was quite different, as it should be.  We concluded that growing as leaders meant seeking feedback to expand our OPEN window pane and shrink our BLIND area, and learn about ourselves.  We also noted that we may need to disclose more about ourselves in terms of behavioural styles or expectations, but not fully reveal all of our "self" as somethings must remain private.  The Unknown area should shrink but will never disappear.  And as it shrinks we can enter into meetings and group projects with a healthier, stronger and lasting approach.  Conflicts need not be about a lack of understanding.


Having done the exercise with the group, I reflected that as a participant I expected to grow in leadership so should everyone, especially the people with which I work.  That does not mean the Johari Window is the solution, but everyone should seek further awareness of themselves and others as growing leaders, but why not give it a try if only to start thinking about awareness and how to encourage it in others.


Thinking about Johari Windows, I came to work today on the bus.  As we were nearing the college bus stop, I was standing by the bus driver, and we started a conversation.  She had been flustered by this being a new route and having just returned to work.  We had a few laughs.  She shared that she was hoping for nice fall this year so she could do more fishing.  As I stepped off the bus, I thanked her for the ride, wished her a good long weekend and a pleasant fall.  And as I walked to the college doors, I thought that it was amazing how much I learned about her in such a brief conversation that wasn't about much and did not have an agenda.  I learned how much I like those conversations.  My OPEN window expanded even if only by a small degree.