Using Strengths Cards and the Johari Window for Team Self-Awareness and Growth

Fostering self-awareness within a team isn’t just a "nice-to-have" exercise—it’s essential for building trust, enhancing collaboration, and driving collective success. When team members understand their strengths and how others perceive them, they can work together more effectively. This creates an environment where everyone feels valued and contributes meaningfully.

Two powerful tools that can help your team deepen its self-awareness are the Johari Window and metaFox Strength Cards. When used together, these tools help teams uncover hidden dynamics, strengthen communication, and tap into their collective potential.

This article will teach you how to use the Johari Window and Strength Cards as a cohesive team-building exercise that promotes mutual understanding and growth.

The Johari Window is a psychological model that helps individuals and teams explore self-awareness and interpersonal dynamics. Created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955, the model divides self-awareness into four quadrants :

• Public Area (Open Self):
  What is known to both the individual and the team? Others openly share and recognize these behaviors, attitudes, or strengths.

  • Example : A client who is confident in their ability to communicate effectively might frequently share their opinions in team meetings.

• Secret Area (Hidden Self):
  What the individual knows about themselves but keeps private. This may include personal strengths or vulnerabilities they haven’t shared with the group.

  • Example : A client might interrupt others without realizing it, but their colleagues notice this habit.

• Blind Spots (Blind Self):
  Traits or behaviors that others notice but the individual isn’t aware of. These often emerge through feedback and open dialogue.

  • Example: A client may secretly fear failure but never express it to their peers.
  
  

• Unknown Area (Unknown Self):
  Aspects of the individual that neither they nor the team know about—unrealized potential, hidden talents, or undiscovered qualities.

  • Example: A client discovers a talent for public speaking only after being encouraged to try it.

Using the Johari Window in a team setting aims to expand the Public Area by encouraging openness and feedback, reducing Blind Spots, and exploring the Unknown Areas to unlock growth opportunities.

Download and print the Johari Window template in EN or DE versions. Then, hand these sheets out to each participant. This will be their worksheet for this exercise.

Lay the Strength Cards face-up on a table or surface where all participants can see them. If you’re working with a larger group, combine the Strength and Values Card sets to ensure enough cards for everyone.

You can also find more interesting card layouts in The Coaching Tools Handbook.

Ask participants to review the cards and reflect on their strengths.

Without taking the cards, they write down the strengths they resonate with within the top section of their Johari Window sheet labeled "My Strengths,” as seen below:

Now, each participant selects one Strength Card to give to each other team member. For example, each person gives out five cards in a group of six.

By the end of this step, each participant will have received five Strength Cards from their teammates, representing the strengths their peers see in them.

Make sure that you have enough cards to be selected by the team. The Stronger You card set has 52 cards; in our example, 5*6=30 cards were chosen. This is the maximum this one-card set can support without running out of cards that feel meaningful to the individual. 

You might want to complement this card set with the metaFox What Really Matters card set (Coaching cards for values) that are not the same but can be used as a practical extension to the strength card set

Using their notes and the Strength Cards received, participants categorize the feedback into the four quadrants of the Johari Window:

• Public Area: Strengths the participants listed themselves, which were also recognized by others.

• Secret Area: Strengths they identified but were not mentioned by others.

• Blind Spots: Strengths identified by others but not self-recognized

• Unknown Area: Leave this quadrant blank, as it represents potential yet to be discovered.

Bring the team to review and reflect on their completed Johari Window worksheet. Facilitate the group discussion with prompts like:

• Alignment: Do the strengths in the Public Area align with how you see yourself?

• Secret Area: Are these strengths genuinely hidden, or did others overlook them? Why? Or were these just not the most important strengths that others wanted to mention?

• Blind Spots: What are your blind spots? Do you not see them? How does recognizing these strengths from feedback change your self-perception

• Growth Opportunities: What strengths from the feedback could help you grow or take on new roles?

Pair participants for one-on-one feedback sessions.

In these conversations, the team members can deeply explore their Johari Window results, clarify feedback, and explore growth opportunities with their colleagues. Rotate pairs as needed to allow participants to engage with multiple perspectives.

This structured process ensures each participant gains a nuanced understanding of their strengths, receives valuable peer feedback, and identifies areas for personal and professional development. By engaging in group discussions and 1:1 conversations, the team builds trust and uncovers new ways to support each other’s growth.

The impact of teams exploring their self-awareness together is profound. Combining the Johari Window and metaFox Strength Cards provides a structured yet flexible approach to helping teams uncover hidden strengths, foster mutual understanding, and unlock collective potential.

Ready to help your team grow? Get the metaFox Strength Cards to access tools to guide your team toward greater self-awareness and collaboration.

You can also download the Johari Window template here.

• EN Version

• DE Version

Let this be the start of a journey where your team thrives on openness, growth, and shared success.

This method and 50 more can be found in  The Coaching Tools Handbook , which you can download for free!