“Self-Awareness”: At the Interface of Executive Development and Psychoanalytic Therapy

In the field of leadership development, increased self-awareness is strongly tied to executive effectiveness. With its emphasis on increased self-knowledge, executive consultation would seem to share important common ground with psychoanalytic treatment. This apparent commonality is the focus of detailed exploration in this article, using concepts and experiences derived from both executive coaching and psychoanalytic treatment to add to the understanding of self-awareness in action. A consideration of the related concepts of self-observation, self-reflection, and self-awareness provides a springboard for describing how a psychoanalytic approach can enrich typical coaching activities to increase executive self-awareness. The critical role of emotional awareness in working with executives is emphasized, and the special role of a psychoanalytic perspective in guiding interventions in this realm is highlighted. Several examples from an executive consultation practice are used to illustrate how a psychoanalyst approaches self-awareness (and emotional awareness in particular) to foster a leader's development. The final section of this article is devoted to the contrasting contexts and modes of self-awareness in psychoanalytic treatment and executive consultation. Although both coaching clients and therapy patients participate in a journey of self-discovery that requires rigorous self-scrutiny, there are important differences in the two enterprises. Some concluding thoughts are offered on how interventions to develop executive self-awareness can broaden our perspective on the kinds of insight and self-understanding that are at the core of the clinical enterprise.