SM,
Thank you for commenting on my post about “what’s missing from my game”. You are on point in picking up that MBA students, who we will call, future world leaders, need a lot of self awareness. I am not over-exaggerating when I say future world leaders, because when you think about the size of Fortune companies, they are in some cases, comparable to the GDP of many countries. This carries with it a lot of responsibility and the fate of many people. I have met many company leaders over the past year and they started exactly where I am now.
You also pose the question of how does one become self aware? All I can say is that it is a journey and I think it is a personal journey. What works for myself or others may not work for you. Actually defining what self awareness is from person to person is also challenging but for some reason, people know it when they see it.
The journey of self-awareness that I have found myself walking at Tuck has been one of defining what I want to do with the next 10 to 20 years of my life. I emphasize the word “want” because there are a lot of things I can do. I have had a great career to date and it equipt me for success in many different arenas. What is missing now beyond the skills I outlined in my post, is me choosing.
It may sound like I am oversimplifying things, but what is going on in my world, really isn’t simple. I am working on the transition from doing things well, to shaping my life so that I am doing my passion. Every great leader I’ve been exposed to over the past year has found their passion and they are in touch with how the work they do impacts everyone around them. They are internally and externally, self aware.
My Tuck experience has forced me to realize, the package called me, is complete. Maybe it was surviving first year or maybe it was finding my unique role among a talented community. I’m not sure, but I feel steadier in my own shoes. Yes, I can always get better, but there is time for that and somehow I got that from Tuck as well. Tuck has exposed me to new possibilities and given me access to pursue just about anything. Tuck has taught me to be wrong, way more than I am right, and to be ok in this state because someone in my network has a better answer than I could have ever come up with alone. Somehow that releases a lot of pressure.
For me, it is no longer about doing things, its about doing what I love, and doing what will enable me to leave my legacy. Somehow I didn’t have the courage to say this two years ago…then it was more about the next job promotion – which may be related to needing to prove myself.
Today, I know many more job promotions are coming, but I’m more concerned about my quality of life and the quality of life I provide to others. I didn’t have access to this without what I’ve been through as a Tuck student or at least I didn’t have confidence with all of these thoughts.
I cannot fully explain it to you, but somehow my class came back from the summer and I saw a simlar shift in them as well. Career objectives are tighter and people have their priorities defined and rank ordered. Somehow relationships are more important and there is a lot more talk of risk-taking, and feeling ok with this, going around. These are not things people were told by someone else. You can tell it comes from each individual.
I think you were perceptive to ask the question and to suggest, that it doesn’t matter what else you know, if you want to take on big things in the world, if you want to take the MBA journey and be successful, you’d better be willing to get to know yourself much better.
Read the full article: Answering the question of "what’s missing?"