Self-Awareness in Leadership

As part of my self-awareness consulting services, I design soft-skills training programs that help leaders create happier workplaces and I’ve noticed a recurring pattern over the years: Many people think that you can change behaviors overnight. They talk earnestly with me about team building or effective communication and expect that a one-day training will resolve everything. I’ve even had leaders and HR managers who lack self-awareness ask me to change how their employees communicate in one hour.

People mean well but the reality is that it takes considerable time and effort for training to take root in an organization. Otherwise it has little chance of having any impact. Here are ten practical ideas to improve your chances of success:

1. Commit to training on an ongoing basis. It helps to have a set time and place for the training that people can rely on.
2. Support employees so they can keep practicing the new skills they acquire.
3. Involve leadership from the very beginning and have them be present and participating actively in the training.
4. Don’t try to do it on the cheap. Your investment up-front often determines your long-term training success.
5. Focus on improving behaviors.
6. Conduct repeated training people can count on.
7. Attendance isn’t optional.
8. Set goals so you can measure success.
9. Train trainers so they can keep the process going.
10. Make the training part of your company culture.

Leaders who don’t do these things are the ones who lack self-awareness and lament that soft-skills training doesn’t work. Those who decide to focus on these areas find that the training they provide has a much better chance at succeeding. It almost always depends on how committed leadership is to making it work and whether they’re in it for the long-term.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and make sure your training works?

Cheers,

Guy

Genuine team building goes beyond the occasional bonding activity or retreat to establishing a culture that encourages self-awareness, rewards collaboration, and teaches everyone in your workplace how to build and participate in cohesive teams. Here are five ideas to keep in mind as you begin creating a culture of self-awareness and team building in your organization:

1. Team building flows from the top. Leaders who practice self-awareness set a positive example of how to behave in the workplace. They show employees the organization is genuinely interested in building healthy teams by actively setting up and participating in an ongoing program.

2. Team building is a company value. You get to choose what your organization values and what it doesn’t and whether people in the organization work against each other or collaborate. You decide what behaviors are acceptable and encouraged in your workplace.

3. Train the trainer. Set aside the time and resources to train people at all levels of the organizations who then train their particular departments until all employees have the knowledge to practice effective team building.

4. Schedule regular time for team building activities. You show your employees that team building is a priority by establishing a weekly stand-alone activity that doesn’t have to share space with other meetings and is attended by people at all levels.

5. Team building is about celebrating your employees. Design team building activities where leaders and employees can connect on a deeper level, build meaningful relationships and praise each other in public.

As a leader, you decide what kind of work environment you create and whether you commit long-term to making it easier for your employees to come together and work collaboratively. What will you do to support a culture of self-awareness and team building in your organization?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-aware leaders are well-equipped to create a strategic plan because they don’t allow their own emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to get in the way of creating a path forward that helps their organization thrive.

When I consult with leaders and organizations they tell me about the gigantic strategic plans that sit on their bookshelves. While those plans include reams of valuable information and input, they collect dust because they are too complex for anyone to use as a reference.

I’m a strong advocate of being self-aware enough to get out of the way and keep things simple in order to live a happier life, so I thought I’d share my basic approach to strategic planning. Strategic planning doesn’t have to be a chore. If you think about it, a strategic plan is really just a document that describes what you want to do and how you’ll do it.

Use the following ideas to create a concise document that guides your organization and that people aren’t afraid to reference.

1. What’s your mission? Write a one sentence mission statement. Keep it simple and speak from the heart. Think in terms of what it is you really want your company to stand for. Stay away from jargon and business speak and focus on a meaningful, basic idea of what your organization does.
2. What are the things you do well? Make a brief list of the things your organization does well so that you know what you have to work with moving forward.
3. What would you like to strengthen? Create a brief list of the areas where you need a little help.
4. Where would you like to go? Write down three to five things you’d like your organization to accomplish. These should be deeply meaningful to your organization and reflect your mission.
5. Who will do what and by when? Decide who will take on each part of where you want to go. This step is much more successful if people assign themselves the tasks. Create a date for completion of each task.

When you work on these five steps you will end up with a living, breathing document that is intentionally concise and open to re-interpretation and change. The whole idea of strategic planning is to give you a framework or foundation you can build on. You can always add more detail or specific tasks but you can’t do it if you don’t build a firm footing first.

Try these steps with a key group of individuals and you’ll be on your way to creating an easy strategic plan that encourages dynamic movement instead of confusion and heartburn. What will you do to develop self-awareness and create a usable strategic plan?

Cheers,

Guy