Thinking About Thinking

Written by Laurie Hillis

Hi, I’m Laurie Hillis, I love what I do: the learning, the process, and above all, seeing how my clients grow as leaders.



Self-Awareness, Emotional Intelligence & Identity



May 11, 2026

Metacognition: the Superpower You Didn’t Know You Needed

You know that feeling when you’re halfway through a meeting, and you suddenly catch yourself thinking, “Wait, why do I actually believe that?” That pause, that tiny moment of stepping outside your own brain to look at it sideways… that, my friend, is metacognition in action, and it might just be the most underrated leadership skill of our time.

Metacognition, at its simplest, is thinking about your thinking. It’s the awareness and regulation of your own cognitive processes; understanding how you learn, why you make the decisions you do, and whether your confidence is grounded in reality or is, shall we say, getting a little ahead of itself.

I’ve been deep in this topic lately, and what’s caught my attention is how many brilliant thinkers are converging on the same idea. You know you’re onto something hot when the intellectual stars start aligning.

The Thought Leaders Are Talking ~ Are You Listening?

David Rock, whose work on the neuroscience of leadership has long been a touchstone for me, has consistently highlighted how self-awareness of our mental processes is foundational to better decision-making and performance under pressure. Then there’s the dream team of Brené Brown and Adam Grant, whose Curiosity Shop podcast episode “Overconfidence and the Art of Knowing Yourself” is essential listening. They describe metacognition as the ability to notice what your mind is doing, evaluate it, and deliberately change it. And they break it down into two elegant components: awareness (noticing your thoughts and assumptions) and regulation (adjusting your thinking based on that awareness).

And then there’s my brilliant friend and colleague, Ali Lalieu – Executive Coach, Keynote Speaker, and fellow traveller in the world of courageous leadership. She recently published a cracking piece on exactly this topic. Great minds, Ali, great minds.

In her latest book Strong Ground, Brené Brown names metacognition as one of the top five skills leaders need to thrive in ‘a future that’s already arrived.’ Because without it, leaders tend to overestimate their own capability, shut down feedback, and inadvertently build cultures that reward confidence over competence. Ouch.

You’re Probably Not as Self-Aware as You Think

This is where it gets a bit uncomfortable. Low metacognition leads to poor calibration: the gap between how good you think you are and how good you actually are. This is the Dunning-Kruger effect. And before you nod knowingly and picture someone else, remember: the people most affected are, by definition, the least aware of it. Sorry, not sorry.

High metacognition, on the other hand, builds a sort of grounded confidence, the kind that can say, “I don’t know yet” without your ego collapsing, that actively seeks out contradictory perspectives, and that treats feedback as useful data rather than attack.

IRL

In my coaching work, I see the metacognitive gap show up constantly. It’s the leader who’s “always been a strong communicator” but hasn’t noticed their team stopped challenging them two years ago. It’s the executive who learns fast in their own domain but assumes that agility transfers everywhere. It’s the high-achiever who confuses familiarity with mastery, and moves on before the real learning has landed.

The leaders who grow fastest aren’t necessarily the smartest in the room; the smartest, or at least most effective leaders are the ones willing to ask:

What do I believe?
How do I know what I know?
What am I assuming that I haven’t tested?
How could I be wrong?

Those questions are metacognition made practical. And in my experience, asking them with curiosity rather than defensiveness is where leaders find their edge.

An Invitation

If you want to be a better leader, a better learner, and frankly a more interesting person at dinner parties, start paying attention to your own thinking.

Notice when you’re certain.

Get curious about why.

Build the habit of stepping outside your own brain for a moment and asking: Is this actually true, or is it just comfortable?

That’s some of the most rewarding work I know.

Resources Referenced

Brown, B. (2025). Strong Ground: Lessons in Leadership and Tenacity
Brown, B. & Grant, A. The Curiosity Shop podcast: “Overconfidence and the Art of Knowing Yourself” — Listen on Spotify
Rock, D. Your Brain at Work & ongoing NeuroLeadership Institute research — neuroleadership.com
Lalieu, A. (2026). “Why Metacognition, Why Now?” — Courageous Leadership Hub

Let’s connect:

If you want to know more about Megatrain and how we can work together, drop me a line:

Still Falling Into the Same Mindtraps?

Jun 7, 2026

Six years ago I wrote about a book that had me questioning how long, how often, and in how many ways my own mind was working against me. It was called Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps by Jennifer Garvey Berger. I recommended it to everyone I knew, wrote about it in a blog in 2020, and it’s still popping up in my life more often than most things I’ve read.

What a Roman Slave Knew About Leadership That Most CEOs Don’t

May 25, 2026

“The Dark Psychology Trick Epictetus Used to Make People Respect Him Instantly.” This was the subject line of an email I received that I just had to open. It was written by Stoicminds and published on Medium. What hooked me was the email’s subject line. I didn’t know who Epictetus was, but the reference to “dark psychology” intrigued me.

The Courage to Quit

Apr 26, 2026

I’ve been sitting with an idea for a few months now. It started when I read something by Susan David (the Harvard psychologist and emotional agility expert) about the hidden benefit of quitting. She challenges one of the most deeply embedded mantras in our cultural operating system: never give up.