Self-Awareness in Leadership Archives – Page 7 of 20

Self-Awareness and Essential Leadership Behaviors

June 11, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Many people are put in leadership positions with little or no preparation and then fall into behaviors based lack of self-awareness and unconscious thought. They tend to lead reactively and automatically based on what they experienced in their families and in previous work environments.

The idea in self-aware leadership is to lead consciously and deliberately rather than winging it and hoping it works. It’s the difference between taking some time to prepare beforehand and running from one emergency to another. Here are five leadership behaviors that will help you create a more inspiring workplace.

Be Organized

Make your life easier by doing top priority things first and less important tasks later. Take some time at the beginning of each week and each day to create a basic plan of what you need to get done. Create a workplace where people have a plan and aren’t putting out fires every moment, it’s much more productive and relaxing.

Let Other People Help You

Many leaders don’t realize that, no matter how driven and talented they may be, they still are stronger when they have other people helping them. One person simply can’t do as much as several people. Find ways to let go of the need to control things and invite others to assist you in creating a successful workplace. Encourage people to stretch and grow and let them add their unique insights and perspectives.

Communicate Openly

So much lost productivity and workplace toxicity develops because people don’t communicate regularly, calmly, respectfully and candidly. Train yourself and your employees to build excellent listening and speaking skills so that interactions flow effortlessly. The more open your workplace is to sharing information, the more you’ll get done and the fewer unforeseen obstacles you’ll encounter.

Be Kind

This means that you treat people with respect and value them at all times. You set reasonable limits and boundaries and behave in ways that build people up and highlight their strengths instead of pointing out deficiencies. Employees know that you set rules and guidelines but that you do it in a way that is caring and empathic.

Be Emotionally Healthy

Your organization is only as healthy as you feel inside. If you’re working out your unresolved issues on your employees you will limit your ability to set a positive example and be credible. People know when you’re doing stuff because of how you feel about yourself and they see you struggling. That’s why it’s a good idea to work out your own issues first before you lead others.

Self-aware leadership is about you taking personal responsibility for being as healthy and balanced as possible so that you’re in an optimal position to motivate others. When you behave effectively and appropriately you move from pushing people around to mobilizing them to do great things.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and practice positive leadership behaviors?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Encouraging Creativity in Your Workplace

June 8, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

The daily challenges of running an organization have a way of diminishing creativity and producing a reactive work environment. Many well-intentioned leaders who lack self-awareness get so stuck in survival mode that they’re unable to take a breath or make even the smallest adjustments. They forget that creativity offers them the opportunity to move in any direction they want to, at any time. Here are three ways you can use your self-aware leadership skills to encourage creativity in your workplace:

Welcome the Future

Anticipate situations that might come your way and develop strategies to deal with them rather than running around putting out fires. Creativity is your gateway to the future because it helps you see things before they happen. Take the time to brainstorm regularly and use creativity to develop new ideas and solutions. Build a group of key people who meet regularly to brainstorm ideas to deal with any existing or potential challenge. Encourage them to think expansively and without limitations.

Value Your Employees’ Talents

Access your employees amazing talents and energy by letting them take on new challenges and do work that is meaningful to them. Provide them opportunities to acquire more education and skills and to broaden their horizons. Let go of the need to control people and trust that they are perceptive individuals who can come up with their own solutions. Ask for their input regularly. When employees are encouraged to use their brains they feel important and are more likely to share ideas to benefit the organization.

Seek Connections

If you’re isolated you can’t connect with others who might be able to help you become stronger. Creativity helps you connect with any individual or organization you want because you’re open to interacting and you’re not bound by preconceptions or self-imposed limitations. When you’re open to making connections you’ll meet people who appreciate what you do and can help you move forward.

As a leader, you get to decide how courageous and open to new possibilities you are and whether you decide to think expansively or not. Creativity is a valuable tool that can help you shift from lamenting limited choices to enjoying unlimited opportunities. What will you do to develop self-awareness and encourage creativity in your workplace?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Leadership

June 6, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-awareness and leadership are two things that should never be without each other. Countless innocent people suffer the consequences of working for leaders who are not self-aware and who do things like:

Work out their personal issues on employees.
Get into power struggles due to control issues.
Have unhealthy, overbearing egos.
Micromanage.
Create constant conflict.
Impose their will at all costs.
Not listen to anyone’s opinion or ideas.
Play favorites or allow cliques.
Treat people rudely.
Only know how to express anger and fake happiness.
Create a workplace of fear.

The whole point of being a self-aware leader is that you are in touch with your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to such a degree that you’re able to create a kind, caring, efficient workplace where everyone matters. A leader with self-awareness is likely to:

Be healthy emotionally and not get his or her stuff on others.
Not have a need to control or dominate.
Have a healthy sense of self and respect others’ individuality as well.
Let people do what they do well.
Have positive interactions with employees.
Let other people be part of the decision-making process.
Listen actively in all settings.
Bring people together.
Treat people with kindness and compassion.
Comfortable dealing with a wide range of emotions.
Create a workplace of courage.

In my experience training leaders, I’ve found that most of them do things from the first list. The irony is that our workplaces don’t have to be dysfunctional and toxic. The whole point of self-aware leadership is to encourage people to be balanced, and comfortable with themselves. The way you do it is to have ongoing training in place that helps leaders take an honest look at themselves and become healthier by learning and practicing the skills from the second list.

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Soft Skills Training

June 4, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Many well-meaning leaders and organizations that lack self-awareness have high hopes for soft skills training and are perplexed when it fails. This phenomenon happens because they think three hours of soft skills training can change their entire workplace. They optimistically hire someone to facilitate a workshop or two and expect their leaders and employees will behave differently overnight. The missing ingredients are time and commitment.

People who lack self-awareness forget that it takes considerable time and effort for soft skills (such as team building, effective communication, leadership or diversity) to take root in an organization. Think of how long it took you to learn the behaviors you currently practice. It takes time to teach people new skills and many leaders and organizations overlook the following concepts for training success:

Decide that this training is as important as any other part of your operation and commit to a long-term program.
Designate a set time and place for the training.
Implement your training from the top down, involve the highest level of leadership from the very beginning.
Focus on training that helps people learn positive workplace behaviors.
Pay a professional to develop and facilitate a training program based on your specific workplace.
Attendance isn’t optional and is part of people’s work duties.
Give employees the time and support needed to learn and practice new skills in the classroom and on the job.
Make the training an integral part of your company culture.
Measure the impact of the training as you move forward and make adjustments as needed.
Train people so they can train others in the organization.

Try these ideas and you’ll find your training yields better results. The success of soft skills training depends on how committed an organization’s leadership is to making it happen. What will you do to develop self-awareness and help your soft skills training succeed?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Expansive Leadership Thinking

June 3, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Leaders who lack self-awareness often get stuck putting out fires or reacting to emergencies all day and forget that they’re the person who sets the example for how people behave in the workplace. Leaders who think expansively move above the fray are able to design healthy, highly functional organizations where people treat each other well and get a lot done. Here are some examples of expansive versus constrictive leadership thinking:

Examples of Constrictive Leadership Thinking

We’ve always done it that way.
Employees should stay in their place.
There’s only one way to do things.
Workplaces are, by nature, rough and chaotic.
People aren’t to be trusted.
You’ve got to tell employees what to do or they won’t do it.
People should stick to the rules.
Employee self-awareness isn’t a priority.

Examples of Expansive Leadership Thinking

Let’s try something new.
Let’s use our employees’ feedback and ideas.
There are many ways to do things.
Workplaces can be kind and calm.
We trust our people.
We encourage employees to motivate themselves.
We’re flexible on the rules.
We help leaders and employees build self-awareness.

Many well-meaning leaders who lack self-awareness miss opportunities to succeed on a higher level because they can’t envision anything beyond the day to day struggle. Expansive thinking is the opposite of what we do in most of our workplaces, it’s an approach that moves past the chaos to calmly and deliberately designing a healthy, flexible and dynamic workplace.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and practice expansive leadership thinking?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Healthy Interactions

May 31, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-awareness helps you have healthy interactions with others because, when you’re comfortable with yourself, you’re able to set your personal issues aside and get along with people no matter what the situation.

Have you ever been around someone who always has to win or be in a dominant position? Have you worked with a boss who works out her personal stuff on her employees? Perhaps you’ve endured friends or family members who make everyone miserable or have a tantrum if things don’t go their way. Maybe you know someone who emotionally blackmails others to get what he wants.

These types of behaviors happen all the time and are symptoms of lack of self-awareness. They occur because people don’t feel good about themselves and don’t understand why they think and behave the way they do. When people are deeply in touch with who they are and are happy and balanced they tend to behave more kindly toward others. They have healthy boundaries and empathy for others because they understand that other people also have needs.

Interacting positively with others is a valuable skill to learn because it helps you live a genuinely happy life. It’s the difference between the boss who tramples all over his co-workers and employees and barks orders all day versus the boss who listens calmly and communicates respectfully. One of them is happier and more balanced. You get to choose how you interact with others. You can either let your stuff get all over everyone around you or you can honor who they are and treat them wonderfully.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and promote healthy interactions?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Your Leadership Style

May 30, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Your level of self-awareness often predicts your leadership style. Many well-meaning leaders actively resist concepts like delegating, praising people or resolving situations without resorting to punishment because it doesn’t enter their minds that those are real options. Self-awareness helps you choose how you behave rather than doing what you’ve always done. Here are some ideas to help you practice conscious leadership in your professional or personal life:

Choose behaviors that lead in a positive direction.
Choose behaviors that help everyone win.
Choose behaviors that promote equality and balance.
Choose behaviors that help you and others learn and grow.
Choose behaviors that help create a happier work or personal life.
Choose behaviors that treat people with care and compassion.

You get to decide what kind of leadership you practice and you’ll generate results based on your thoughts and behaviors. For example: If you don’t believe in praise then it won’t be very important in your workplace and you’ll get the corresponding results. When you feel healthy and balanced inside, you’ll tend to choose leadership behaviors that yield desirable results and treat people well along the way. What will you do to practice a leadership style that leads in a positive direction?

Cheers,

Guy