In the Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” two weavers formulate a ruse by deceiving the emperor into thinking they have made him a beautiful new set of clothes. Despite having on only his underwear, when the emperor looks in the mirror, he believes he sees himself in these new garments. Are our blind spots much different?

🥑 It had been a fun lunch with friends. We were all in our thirties speaking of life and work situations. Conversations about skills, experience, and expertise laced with humor filled the air. Confidence was high, fear and self-doubt were nowhere to be found.

🔑 Arriving home, putting my purse and keys on the kitchen table, I stood there and that’s when the epiphany hit me. You see, I didn’t contribute to the conversation, because all I had at the time was fear, self-doubt, a lack of self-confidence, and, in my mind, no expertise, experience or skills.

We all have some level of self-knowledge. We know what we do and don’t like, we know who we do and don’t like and why. We know where we like to hang out. We may even have some knowledge of our skills, talents, attributes, and even how we like to use them for and in our life’s work. But is that knowledge enough? Does it go deep enough for us to be successful in business, career, and life?