99 Life Without A Full-Length Mirror: The Importance and Impact of Self-Awareness in Leaders O. Kent Comstock, Jr. O. Kent Comstock, Jr. was a Ph.D. candidate in the Cook School of Leadership and served as an Executive Pastor at Crossroads Church in Odessa, Texas. On September 25, 2020, he and his wife were tragically killed in an auto accident, leaving behind three children. An endowed scholarship fund was established for Ph.D. students in his honor. Society is demonstrating an ever-growing interest in self-awareness as researchers like Hunter have argued for the perpetual need for increasing self-awareness in community, and Urdang purported self-awareness as a fundamental cornerstone of professionalism and “foundational to maturation.”1 Showry and Manasa joined a growing body of empirical research when he identified self-awareness as far more critical to leadership success than IQ or technical skills,2 while Zuckerman, Friedman, and Castro claimed only 10-15% of people are self-aware.3 The literature surrounding self-awareness could be classified into a categorical plethora, with psychology, business, medicine, and leadership as just a few of the contributing fields. Experts from across academic disciplines provide a vibrant choir of authors from which researchers can glean. Many definitions of self-awareness exist, and although related, there is a distinct difference between emotional intelligence and self-awareness.4 Dirette defined self-awareness as “conscious knowledge of one’s abilities.”5 Gatling, Castelli, and Cole extended it with “awareness and trust in personal values, feelings, motives, and cognition, as well as an awareness of inherent conflicting self-aspects.”6 McNaughton stated it as “the ability to distinguish oneself and one’s values from others and theirs’.”7 Essentially, it is the ability to be aware of one’s strengths and weaknesses and THE IMPORTANCE AND IMPACT OF SELF-AWARENESS IN LEADERS
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