Know Thyself
Drawing Hands by M.C. Escher
Why self-awareness is your first leadership tool—and how Escher’s weird hands help me explain it.
Nearly every leadership workshop I facilitate begins with a very important slide: a drawing by M.C. Escher called Drawing Hands. You’ve probably seen it—two hands, each drawing the other into existence, stuck in a beautifully mind-bendy loop. (Yes, I had the stairs one on my bedroom wall as a teen. Tell me you’re Gen X without telling me you’re Gen X.)
The reason I start with this image is simple: You cannot lead anyone else until you’ve taken the time to understand yourself.
This isn’t just motivational fluff. It’s structural. Foundational. You’ve got to know what kind of human you are before you go around trying to guide other humans.
So, step one in leadership? Figure yourself out.
Take the quiz. Take all the quizzes.
I don’t care if it’s your Myers-Briggs type, your Enneagram number, your love language, your natal chart, or your coffee order—if it helps you name something true about yourself, it’s useful.
Why? Because self-awareness is what lets you plant your feet. It gives you a steady place to stand so you can move forward with clarity and integrity. Leadership without it? Wobbly at best.
Here’s what I know about me:
I’m an eldest daughter.
An introverted extrovert.
I love individual people, but humanity as a whole? Often exhausting.
And—I’m terrible at delegating. (There. I said it.)
I’m learning, slowly. In my classroom, I’ve gotten pretty good at “delegating” to students (because I know they’ll grow from it). But when it comes to hosting a party, cleaning the house, planning an event, or any other kind of grown-up life maintenance? I’ll 100% just do it myself before I ask for help.
And knowing that about myself has made me a better leadership educator.
Because now I get to say—honestly—do as I say, not as I do.
I get to name the challenge instead of skipping over it. (And if I have ever skipped over the delegation lesson in a leadership training you attended… well, now you know why! Not my natural habitat. 😅)
But here’s the real point: Self-knowledge unlocks compassion.
For yourself. For others. For the wild, messy, magical task of leading anything at all.
So before you draft that mission statement or volunteer to run the next big thing, pause and ask yourself:
Who am I, really?
How do I operate?
Where do I thrive—and where do I flail?
Because when you know that, everything else gets easier. (Not easy. Just easier.)
Click here to book me for your next leadership workshop—I’ve got time, I’ve got passion, and I promise not to make you clean my house.
Want to dig into your leadership style? Make sure you’re subscribed to the newsletter—new posts, exercises, and reflection prompts drop every week. Plus, you’ll get my Values Inventory which absolutely counts as a tool to help you Know Thyself.
