Knowing Oneself: At the Heart of Great Nursing

In his book, Heroic Leadership, Lowney links great leadership to self-knowledge. Such self-knowledge begins with self-awareness. It is often developed through daily self-reflection over time, incrementally, sometimes painfully. The best self-knowledge is typically derived from an authentic, honest appraisal of how our own thoughts and actions have affected ourselves and any others whose lives we’ve touched. This type of knowledge begins with a backward look at what has happened, but once it is learned, that knowledge shapes our future thoughts and actions.