Today I want to talk to you about the Johari Window. As a leader, you must be aware of yourself and your relationship with those that you lead. This will help your team develop trust and mutual understanding that ultimately propels you and your goals forward. Let’s take a look.
The Johari Window was originally developed by Luft and Ingham, but it’s very helpful for the church. If something is both known by you and your team, it is in the open category. You are aware of it and so are they. All is well. The more that falls into this open area, the more productive and effective you will be as a team.
The next category is your blind spots. These are things that others know about you, but you don’t know about yourself. By getting to know your team and asking them for feedback, you can begin to reduce those blind spots and begin to move them into the open category. This is important for you to do in your growth as a leader and your growth as a team.
The next category is the hidden spots. Unlike blind spots, these are things that you know about yourself that others don’t. And just like asking for feedback to reduce your blind spots, in order to reduce your hidden spots you are going to have to reveal those to your team and also ask for feedback. This will move it into the open category.
The final category is the unknown. These are things which both you and your team are unaware of. If you discover something that is in the unknown, it will move into the hidden category. It’s known by you, but hidden to your team. So you have to bring that into the light. If someone on your team discovers something that is unknown then they have to trust you and be willing to bring that blind spot in front of you and the team so that everyone moves forward. This takes a lot of trust, but builds great relationships and, ultimately, builds a great team.
Please note that these quadrants don’t necessarily always mean that they are equal in size. When you are serving in a new leadership role, there will likely be a lot more in the blind spots and more in the hidden spots until you establish relationships and trust and get to know your team. After you’ve served for a while in that role, more and more things should move into the open category and the other quadrants should shrink in size.
Now that you understand the Johari Window, what are you going to do about it?
