Six Questions Every Leader Should Ask Themselves

In this episode of Coaching for Leaders podcast, host Dave Stachowiak visits with Margaret Andrews, author of Manage Yourself to Lead Others: Why Great Leadership Begins with Self-Understanding. She argues that you cannot know others until you know and understand yourself. Andrews’ class of the same title is the most popular professional learning at Harvard. 

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The Six Questions for Self-Understanding:

1. Who, and whose thinking, has shaped you as an individual?
2. What situations and events have helped shape your perspective?
3. What does success look like for you?
4. What are your core values, and how have these values changed throughout your life?
5. To what extent are you aware of—and allow yourself to feel—your emotions?
6. What feedback have you received over the years about how your actions and behaviors impact others?

Additional Readings with linked resources:

• How Self-Understanding Builds Trust, Clarity, And Credibility, Forbes, October 7, 2025
• Good People Management Begins with Self-Understanding, Atlassian Work Life, September 30, 2025