Greg Stevenson explains why boards now prioritize self-awareness when hiring CEOs. Leaders who openly discuss their blind spots, past failures, and what they're still learning signal they can be held accountable. A narrow gap between how you see yourself and how you actually behave reduces the risk of costly leadership mistakes.
The second is genuine self-awareness. Boards are increasingly sophisticated and increasingly deliberate about the risks of a CEO's blind spots. The candidate who can speak honestly about what they don't yet know, where they have failed and what they generally learn from it, what they are still actively working on— that person signals something critically important. They signal that their self-image is not so fragile that reality can't touch it. That the gap between how they see themselves and how they actually show up is narrow enough to be worked with. That is crucial signal— is a crucial signal for a board, and that is about to hand someone ultimate accountability with very limited ability to course correct if the appointment is wrong.
