The primary purpose of this dissertation is to propose a framework for leader attunement, a key component of leader self-awareness (LSA), and empirically test leader attunement as a predictor of leader effectiveness. Self-awareness theories from psychology and social psychology and more recent definitions of self-awareness are reviewed and from these a conceptual definition of LSA is proposed. The second component of LSA, the awareness of one's impact and influence on others, is referred to as leader attunement. Leader attunement serves as an appropriate measure of LSA and is operationalized by comparing how leaders predict they will be rated by others against others' actual ratings, using a multisource feedback assessment (MSFA) tool of emotional competence (EC). A secondary area of research addresses the relationship between EC and cognitive intelligence (IQ) as predictors of leader effectiveness. Results show that there was a difference between how leaders rated their frequency in demonstrating leadership behaviors versus how they predicted others would rate them. Leader attunement did significantly predict effectiveness, but it did not predict effectiveness better than the self-other rating gap. Moreover, higher leader attunement did not equate to higher effectiveness. EC was a predictor of effectiveness whereas IQ was not. Finally, one unexpected finding in the research was that men had significantly higher leader attunement than women and yet women were rated higher in effectiveness than men. All these results are discussed and limitations of this study are set forth. In addition, implications for further research and practice as well as the contributions to the field of organizational behavior are reviewed.
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