Core Concepts: The Self-Aware Leadership Compass #9 - Experience
Knowing Self-Aware Leadership Minimalistical
Hello KSKOers
Welcome to today’s Knowing Self-Aware Leadership minimalistical!
The first nine Knowing Self-Aware Leadership blog articles of 2025 are exclusive extracts from my book, The Self-Awareness Superhighway, focused on the nine directions of the self-aware leadership compass. Here’s the very last minimalistical from my book, all about experience. You can read the full article here.
Looking forward to joining you on your learning journey!
“I never lose. I either win or learn.” Nelson Mandela
Experience
The core concepts from the article are:
Learning from experience is essential for leadership growth: Effective leadership is grounded in a willingness to reflect, adapt, and grow through lived, often challenging, experiences.
Self-awareness and learning are inseparable in leadership: Truly impactful leaders continuously learn from their actions and feedback, using that insight to evolve and refine their approach.
Adversity plays a key role in shaping leadership: Leading through difficulty, whether crisis, change, or conflict, strengthens leadership capabilities and builds long-term resilience.
Every individual’s experience shapes their unique perspective: We each interpret the world differently, influenced by our senses, background, beliefs, and the personal stories we carry.
Leadership is not taught, it is developed through practice: While formal training helps, real leadership grows from nurturing innate traits through meaningful, hands-on experience.
Storytelling is a vital leadership communication tool: Leaders must articulate their experiences clearly, showing impact and value through relatable, engaging stories.
Providing experiential learning helps others to grow: Support your team’s development by creating space for shadowing, mentoring, temporary roles, and real-world leadership exposure.
Retaining talent means nurturing it from within: Develop people internally with varied, enriching opportunities to reduce turnover and build lasting organisational strength.
A generous leader creates a culture of shared learning: Share your insights openly to build a psychologically safe workplace where learning from failure is not just accepted, but encouraged.
The Last Word
By embracing experience as a core part of leadership development, we not only grow ourselves but also create space for others to thrive. Leadership is a journey shaped by reflection, challenge, and shared learning. Let’s keep learning, keep sharing, and keep building cultures where people are supported to lead with confidence and care.
Nia is an expert leader who talks the talk and walks the walk. She is an academically awarded thought leader in self-aware leadership and practices self-aware leadership every single day in her role as a Director in a Children’s Charity.
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