Every leader (or an aspiring leader) should understand Johari Window principle if he wants to develop his career in Leadership. Johari Window is a psychological tool created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955. It’s a simple tool to develop self-confidence. It will also help you increase your communications skills, interpersonal relationships, group dynamics and team development.
It’s a great tool to use because it can be applied in a variety of situations and environments.
What is Johari Window? 
See the diagram elsewhere in the page. In this example we are going to talk about how the Johari window works with you (as the leader) within a team. In this instance there are two factors at work within the Johari window. The first factor is what you know about yourself. The second factor relates to what other people know about you.
The model works using four area quadrants. Anything you know about yourself and are willing to share is part of your open area. You can build trust between you and your team members by disclosing information to others and learning about others from the information they in turn disclose about themselves.
Any aspect that you do not know about yourself, but others within the group have become aware of, is in your blind area. With the help of feedback from others you can become aware of some of your positive and negative traits as perceived by others. Then you can overcome some of the personal issues that may be inhibiting your personal or group dynamics within the team.
There are also aspects about yourself that you are aware of but might not want others to know, this quadrant is known as your hidden area. This leaves just one area and is the area that is unknown to you or anyone else – the unknown area.
The balance between the four quadrants can change. You might want to tell few selected tem members a particular aspect of your life that you had previously kept hidden. This would increase your open area and decrease your hidden area.
It is also possible to increase your open area by asking for feedback from people. When feedback is given honestly to you it can reduce the size of your blind area. When receiving feedback, be respectful, listen and reflect on what has been said. It may be on receiving feedback you may want to explore it further that can lead to discovery about yourself. Alternatively, people may always want to talk to you because you are a good listener. Sometimes you don’t realise these aspects of your character until it is pointed out.
By working with others, it is possible for you to discover aspects that neither of you may never have appreciated before.
The Johari window as a tool does have its drawbacks: Some things are perhaps better not communicated with others. People may pass on the information they received further than you desire or use it in a negative way.
Develop self-confidence
Leaders must also develop self-confidence. When you build self-confidence, you start to back yourself. You start to believe that you’re capable. You start to believe that you are worth it, and that you know what you are talking about.
The result of all this self-confidence means: (a) You make better decisions, because you stop second-guessing yourself. (b) You build trust, because people around you think you have everything under control; and (c) You are more likely to speak up when people around you are too scared to do it.
How to build self confidence
1. Build self-confidence by keeping track of your accomplishments
Remember that time you overcame that big problem? How about when you helped two of your team members build their skills to get their promotions?
You get the picture. Keep track of your accomplishments and good feedback you receive, so that you can revisit them when times are tough. This will help you be able to say: “Hey! I’ve succeeded before. I can do it again!”
2. Build self-confidence by getting out of your comfort zone
When you push yourself out of your comfort zone, you start to become more comfortable with the unknown and the uncertain. Then problems generally become easier to overcome, and are less stressful. To get out of your comfort zone, you simply need to do things you haven’t done before. Go on a public speaking course, go to a networking event or take on that difficult project. Do whatever will stretch those comfortable boundaries. When you succeed at that, you build a tremendous amount of confidence. 
3. Find a sounding board to help you work through a problem or decision
We all need a sounding board. Somebody we can talk to and bounce ideas off, to check our thinking and get advice. This could be a coach, mentor or someone from your personal network who is not directly involved with the situation you want to discuss.
This helps you to check your ideas, and answer the following important question: “Am I crazy? Or am I on the right track?” Having a sounding board will help you build self-confidence because you aren’t just listening to our own internal voice all the time. We have another reference point.
4. Build self-confidence by letting go of trying to know it all.
If you think you need to know everything your team members do, you’re in trouble. Leaders don’t know everything, and they shouldn’t try to. Instead, you should delegate responsibility to those who are best placed to succeed.
Leaders who think they need to know everything will come unstuck, because they: (a) Don’t ask questions, because they think they’ll look stupid, (b) Micromanage their teams, because they think they should know best. Micromanagement doesn’t give results), Attack others, to try to deflect the spotlight from themselves.
You should relax. Ask those questions to help you understand. Let go of trying to know it all.
5. Start building your network
Networking is something that many leaders overlook, especially during the good times. We become complacent and relax. We don’t need our network as much when everything is fine. Until something bad happens. And you might need that network to find your next job, or to get some advice from an experienced former colleague.
When you have a strong network, you have resources to draw upon when you need them. This will build self-confidence, because you will feel less like you are going it alone.
6. Build self-confidence by understanding your leadership weaknesses
Finally, it can be a mistake to shy away from understanding your leadership weaknesses. Instead of trying to hide them away, embrace them. When you understand your own leadership weaknesses, you can work with your team to minimise their impact. You will build self-confidence, because you will start to feel less exposed.
Guard against doubts
At the core of any leader’s journey is surviving the assaults that are hurled at him, while remaining in the battle. Sometimes, this is a daily challenge. To continue winning the outside battle, he has to continue winning the battle within.
Doubt yourself
When things are going badly, it is easy to doubt yourself. It’s even worse when things have gone really bad. You doubt your ability to solve the problem. You doubt your strength, your patience, your faith, your wisdom, or your skills.
If doubt prompts you to seek help from God, that’s fine. But doubt that leads to negative self-talk, can be detrimental: for example, “I cannot do this. I am not good enough. I should have never gotten into this.”
You have to change these voices to: “I have not figured this out yet. I need to do better in asking for advice from others. I need to continue and improve the way I handled this as a leader. I do have the skillset and gifts to accomplish what’s in my charge.”
Doubting your people
The second doubt that creeps into your mind when you suffer big attacks, and crippling defeats, is doubting our team. You start thinking, “I just have the wrong people helping me. They don’t know what they are doing. If they had more enthusiasm for their work, we would be in a better place.”
When you start hearing these thoughts, you must visualise your team members’ capacities which are untapped most of the time. They are capable of doing more. The question is: Are you skilled enough as a leader to tap into that potential?
Naturally, there are times you do actually have the wrong people with you. However, great leaders say that the solution is not a constant firing and hiring cycle in search of the perfect person. It is learning how to raise the level of those already there.
Of course, as the last resort, you may have to change the people around you. But, more often it is not the people who are the problem, but the clarity of the vision and the level of your leadership capacity.
Respect and believe in your people. Challenge them to grow. Just as you have an almost unlimited capacity for growth, they do as well. Help them get there. Wrestle over and conquer your doubts. So much is riding on that battle. That must be your responsibility.
(Lionel Wijesiri is a retired company director with over 35 years’ experience in senior business management. Presently he is a business consultant, freelance newspaper columnist and a writer.)
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