Self-Awareness in Leadership Archives – Page 7 of 20

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

Self-Awareness Helps You Not Limit Your Leadership Success

May 30, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

When I consult for leaders it’s often apparent that they have varying visions of what constitutes leadership. There are those who lack self-awareness and believe leadership is giving orders or getting things done single-handedly, while others believe in teamwork and delegating. There’s no right or wrong approach to leadership, but different actions lead to different results. Here are four things I’ve noticed tend to limit leaders’ success:

They can only do it their way. Leaders come in with one vision or one methodology that they follow regardless of outcome. This approach limits their ability to find new and more effective ways of doing things as well as using their employees’ input.
They don’t use our employees’ talents. People who come in with a single-minded vision often forget that they’re sitting on a potential gold mine of talent and ideas. When leaders only use their own ideas and perspectives they limit their chances to do even more with the help of their employees.
They don’t praise. Many leaders simply give directives and then wait for things to be done to their satisfaction. The key here is that they focus only on getting things done rather than encouraging and praising employees along the way.
They don’t plan efficiently. Leaders often go in with plenty of good intentions but spend all their time putting out fires. This reactive approach to leadership ensures they will only focus on the latest emergency limits their ability to organize our workplace.

These practices aren’t evil but they are representative of many of our workplaces. Leaders who address the issues we’ve talked about here not only find they increase their chances of success but they also enjoy their jobs more. What will you do to develop self-awareness and increase your leadership success?

Cheers,

Guy

Lack of Self-Awareness Leads to Uninspiring Leadership

May 21, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Many intelligent, dedicated professionals practice the time-honored tradition of uninspiring leadership. They don’t do it on purpose, it’s just that they’re used to the “Giving Orders and Controlling People” model of leadership instead of leading with self-awareness. Uninspiring leadership doesn’t have to be the norm because there are positive alternatives available to anyone who chooses to use them. The first step to shifting your leadership approach is to assess whether you practice uninspiring leadership, that is, behaviors like the following:

Lack of empathy.
Getting angry at people.
Not trusting employees.
Lacking organization.
Not delegating.
Not admitting mistakes.
Not believing change is possible.
Adhering to one way of doing things.
Continuing to do things that don’t work.
Thinking you have all the answers.
Resistance to new ideas or approaches.
Not listening to people.
Imposing solutions from outside.
Not asking for or valuing employee input.
Lack of self-awareness.

If you want to do the things on this list, you’re welcome to and you’ll see results based on your actions. If you’d rather inspire yourself and others, then you’ll do the opposite of these things, for example: If you don’t currently delegate effectively, work on learning how to delegate. Inspiring leadership is about having the self-awareness to let go of the thoughts and behaviors that don’t work and replacing them with new approaches that yield positive results. This gives you the power to choose how you think and behave in the workplace and what kind of leadership style you prefer. What will you do to increase your self-awareness and practice inspiring leadership?

Cheers,

Guy

8 Ways Self-Awareness Helps Leaders Inspire and Motivate

May 20, 2023 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Most leaders have a grasp on how to give orders but much less of an idea of how to inspire and motivate beyond setting a positive example or giving enthusiastic speeches. The missing element is self-awareness, as in the leader’s knowledge of himself (or herself) and how he affects himself and others. Here are some examples of how self-awareness builds leadership excellence:

Self-awareness helps leaders manage their own thoughts, emotions and behaviors so that they don’t transfer or project them onto employees.
Self-awareness helps leaders behave consciously and proactively instead of reacting based on their unresolved inner hurts or ego.
Self-awareness helps leaders get out of the way and let their employees shine.
Self-awareness helps leaders feel more balanced.
Self-awareness helps leaders build happier workplaces.
Self-awareness helps leaders get rid of behaviors that don’t work and replace them with positive ones.
Self-awareness helps leaders evaluate their strengths and areas for improvement.
Self-awareness helps leaders welcome change and ambiguity.

Inspirational and motivational leaders understand that they have to be healthy in order to help their employees thrive. What would you add to this list?

Cheers,

Guy