Self-Awareness is an Essential Leadership Competency

Self-awareness is crucial to effective leadership. Without it, you’ll have a hard time performing to your potential and getting others to follow where you lead. One key to developing self-awareness is figuring out your strengths and weaknesses and how to leverage those to drive results. Another key is learning to see how others perceive you.To help you learn more about developing self-awareness, here are five great articles and blog posts I’ve read on the topic this week.5 Ways to Become More Self-Aware. Harvard Business Review: “Write down your key plans and priorities. One of the best ways to increase self-awareness is to write down what you want to do and track your progress. Warren Buffet, for one, is known for carefully articulating the reasons he’s making an investment at the time he makes it. His journal entries serve as a historical record that helps him assess whether or not future outcomes can be attributable to sound judgment or just plain luck.”How to Tell if You’re a Jerk at Work. The Wall Street Journal: “One effective way to raise self-awareness is to gather anonymous assessments from peers and colleagues, with the results collected into an overall report that doesn’t identify who said what. Ratings can be revealing—but try to ask open-ended questions as well. Give people a chance to write extended answers, instead of just choosing a response on a rating scale. To avoid mushy and ambiguous remarks, ask people to discuss concrete behaviors, and separate out open-ended questions seeking input on effective behaviors from those aiming for comments about problematic behaviors or development areas. It’s also important to ask the right people for feedback. Target those who have seen you in action, and be wary of stacking the deck with people who will just try to ingratiate themselves by telling you what they think you want to hear.”Get Clear On Your Leadership Sight Picture: 15 Keys To Self-Awareness. CEO.com: “Innate personality: Personality is the aggregate of all the decisions you have made, your experiences, what you felt about those decisions and experiences at the time and how you remember them. It is vital that you gain at least some insight into your personality because it fundamentally affects how you present yourself to the world. It is also greatly influences how others see and respond to you.”Self-Awareness: A Leadership Requirement - Does Your Brand Have It? The Personal Branding Blog: “By definition self-awareness is ‘the conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires.’ It’s a trait that allows you to recognize how your presence affects others around you. Are you aware of what others’ body language and behaviors might be saying? Do you sense friction arising during conversations? Can you recognize the message given by certain facial expressions or gestures? Likewise, what’s the atmosphere of your office on any given day? Is it high-energy or low morale? Even if you’re not having the best day, remember people are watching you and your demeanor is contagious. Don’t let a bad day dull your presence.”Self-Awareness: The Gateway to Leadership. The e.Mile People Development Magazine: “The best leaders trust themselves – warts and all – to operate from a place of openness and honesty. This means displaying vulnerability. Yes, even at the risk of scaring the workforce, by having them know you don’t have all the answers.  Leaders who can share insecurities, hand responsibility back to others, ask questions rather than provide answers, and use EQ to learn rather than persuade and manipulate, will earn greater respect and trust in the longer term.”Contact us if you’d like to learn how we can help your organization’s leaders build self-awareness and develop other essential leadership competencies.Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.