A Self-Assessment Based on the Johari Window
Every leader has blind spots. Not because they lack skill or care — but because the nature of leadership makes certain things invisible to the person in charge.
The teachers you lead see things about your leadership that you don't. The patterns you've normalised, the signals you've stopped noticing, the assumptions you've never questioned — these are the gaps that quietly shape your school's culture.
The Johari Window
In 1955, psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham developed a model for understanding self-awareness in relationships. It divides knowledge about yourself into four quadrants:
- Open Area — What you know about yourself, and others know too
- Hidden Area — What you know about yourself, but others don't see
- Blind Area — What others see about you, but you don't recognise
- Unknown Area — What neither you nor others have yet discovered
This assessment is designed to help you gauge how actively you are working to shrink your Blind Area. Answer honestly — the results are only for you.
1. When you enter a room, people adjust their behaviour around you.
2. You have received the same piece of feedback more than once from different people.
3. There is a decision you have been avoiding because it would be uncomfortable.
4. You sometimes perform confidence while feeling uncertain inside.
5. When you think about staff morale, you rely on...
6. You know what your newest staff members genuinely think about working here.
7. When someone disagrees with you publicly, your first instinct is to...
8. When you receive critical feedback about your leadership, you usually...
9. The people you publicly praise or recognise tend to be...
10. When a teacher admits a mistake or raises a problem, the typical outcome is...
11. If you ran a fully anonymous survey tomorrow, the results would...
12. There is a conversation about your leadership you have been putting off.
Please answer all 12 questions before viewing your results.
Sources & Evidence Base
- Luft, J. & Ingham, H. (1955). "The Johari Window: A Graphic Model of Interpersonal Awareness." Proceedings of the Western Training Laboratory in Group Development. — The original framework for understanding blind spots in interpersonal relationships.
- Sutton, A. (2016). "Measuring the Effects of Self-Awareness: Construction of the Self-Awareness Outcomes Questionnaire." Europe's Journal of Psychology, 12(4), 645–658. — Demonstrates that structured self-awareness practice improves leadership decision-making and relationship quality.
- Eurich, T. (2018). "What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It)." Harvard Business Review. — Only 10–15% of people are truly self-aware; leaders who actively seek feedback significantly outperform those who don't.
- Nesbit, P. L. (2012). "The Role of Self-Reflection, Emotional Management of Feedback, and Self-Regulation Processes in Self-Directed Leadership Development." Human Resource Development Review, 11(2), 203–226. — Reflection combined with external feedback is the most effective pathway for leadership growth.