Imagine, if you will, that you’re getting ready for a significant social or business event to be held in the evening. Perhaps it’s an award program or the capstone event at a conference. You’re the guest of honor, and all eyes will be upon you. You need to be confident, and a big part of your confidence will be knowing you look your very best.

But as you prepare yourself to leave for the event, with a feeling of horror you discover that in your dressing room there’s no mirror! You go into the bathroom. No mirror. Everywhere you look, there’s not a mirror to be found. Nothing that will reflect your visual image as others see it.

Panic begins to set in. Without a mirror, how will you know what you look like? Your clothing, your hair, your makeup (if you customarily wear any)—how will you know that you’re presenting yourself in the best way possible? How will you know how other people see you?

This scenario sounds like a nightmare, doesn’t it?

As human beings, in our everyday lives we’re concerned with how we appear to other people. I don’t mean that we’re vain, like many stars of reality shows. I mean that when interacting with other people, we want to present a positive and agreeable self image that will allow our listener to focus on what we say or what we’re proposing rather than something irrelevant, like our choice of hairstyle or the suit we’re wearing.

We want to be sure that we’re delivering the message that matters, without distractions or missteps. Since first impressions are important, by looking in the mirror we can verify that we’re projecting the image we intend.

The Hardest Person to Know Is Yourself

What if you could hold up a magic mirror that showed not just your appearance but everything you do as an innovation leader?

What would the mirror reveal?

If you’ve never done it before, you might be shocked. What you think you look like could be very different from how others see you.

You might see an innovation leader who gets sidetracked into unimportant issues.

You might see an innovation leader who misjudges how the market is changing.

You might see an innovation leader who isn’t getting the clear information he or she needs to make the very best decisions.

You might see an innovation leader who isn’t fully connected to his or her stakeholders.

You might see an innovation leader who in the race to win is falling many steps behind.

The fact is, the hardest person to know can be yourself. Don’t be alarmed—it’s just a fact of life. How we visualize ourselves can be very different from how the world sees us. For an innovation leader with responsibilities to others, this misalignment can be costly.

What can you do to prevent a damaging misalignment between how you imagine yourself and the reality of your performance as a leader?

The Innovation Leadership Reset

You can do what I call the innovation leadership reset.

It’s where you stop, step back, and honestly assess what you’re doing, both as a leader and a human being.

Even if you’re a successful innovator, it’s a good idea to regularly press the reset button on your leadership approach, competency, and skills. Especially in a time of massive disruption, with a changing workforce, shifting markets, and rapidly evolving technology, periodic self-assessment is important. The key to successful innovation leadership (and for that matter, friendships and marriages) is to live immersed in self-awareness. The problem is that we get busy and consumed by our schedule, and we never really sit down and ask ourselves the tough questions.

Don’t be afraid to step back, listen to what people are saying around you, and ask yourself, “To the very best of my ability, am I helping my people to focus on innovation?” I hope the answer is yes!