Self-Awareness in Leadership

Self-Awareness, Team Building, and Everyone Being on the Same Page - Change Your Life through Self-Awareness

Self-Awareness, Team Building, and Everyone Being on the Same Page

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A frequently overlooked detail of team building is that it is most effective when everyone has self-awareness and is on the same page. If you’ve ever tried to build a team and had it go off course due to one or two individuals, you can be quite certain it’s because not everyone is self-aware enough to be on the same page and practice the same behaviors. For example: You’ve worked diligently to create a great team and then someone else joins the group who throws everything off-balance. Perhaps the person has a strong personality or different vision, he or she can make the whole team unravel.

The effect on teams of having even one person who lacks self-awareness and isn’t fully on board with the process is that your team is only as strong as that person. This happens a lot in organizations where much of the decision making is done by one leader and not by a team. In workplaces like that you get teams that function based on the perspective of one person rather than the input of many.

The challenge in team building is to create an environment where everyone has an important voice and is an equal part of the group instead of having one or two people making decisions for everyone else. A positive way to help your team members get on the same page is to set some basic guidelines for participation. Train everyone so that they understand that everyone’s voice is equal and that no one person is more valuable than the next. Make sure you have a  in your meetings who understands how to get rid of power differentials and the interactions that sidetrack successful team meetings. If a new person joins the group, bring them into the process and train them on the guidelines as well as encouraging team members to model positive behaviors. If someone insists on derailing the process keep reiterating the group guidelines and practicing the positive behaviors. Team building isn’t a one-shot process, it takes time and deliberate effort to make it work.

The idea with team building is to create an atmosphere where everyone feels included, valued, important and comfortable participating. This allows leaders to build teams that aren’t derailed by a strong personality or power differentials and, instead, move toward groups where everyone is highly motivated to participate. When everyone on the team is invited and encouraged to provide input you and your organization can achieve greater success because everyone will feel like contributing.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and create stronger teams?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Aware Leaders Are Visionary - Change Your Life through Self-Awareness

Self-Aware Leaders Are Visionary

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Self-aware leaders are visionary because they have worked through the issues that get in the way of creativity and are able to see the big picture and look ahead instead of being stuck always doing the same unproductive things.

If you want to be a profoundly average leader who lacks self-awareness, unvisionary leadership allows you to create a mediocre workplace where people are unhappy, undervalued and underutilized so that someone can make a buck. A large percentage of our workplaces follow this approach when they could just as easily design a profitable organization that treats it’s people well and functions nimbly and creatively. Here are some examples of the contrast between unvisionary and visionary leadership:

Unvisionary: Focus on making money regardless of how you treat employees.
Visionary: Make money while treating your employees kindly and compassionately.

Unvisionary: Find ways to cut pay, perks and benefits.
Visionary: Identify ways to increase pay, perks and benefits.

Unvisionary: Use punishment to try to manage behavior.
Visionary: Use positive reinforcement to encourage positive behavior.

Unvisionary: Spend each day scrambling from one emergency to the next.
Visionary: Plan calmly in advance and include your employees in the process.

Unvisionary: Limit employees’ input and keep them in a box.
Visionary: Encourage creative thinking and listen to people’s ideas.

Unvisionary: Resist change.
Visionary: Welcome change.

Unvisionary: Run your organization from the top down.
Visionary: Give people at all levels power, automy and decision-making ability.

Unvisionary: Provided limited training and expect people to perform perfectly.
Visionary: Provide ongoing training and educational opportunities.

Unvisionary: Make sure people in leadership positions have no self-awareness.
Visionary: Hire or train emotionally intelligent, compassionate leaders.

Your workplace reflects your underlying leadership values and beliefs. Any shift in how your organization functions begins with you imagining that things can be different. You can choose to design a workplace that makes a profit while honoring employees, but it can’t happen unless you believe it’s possible and are willing to take action to make it a reality.

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

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Aware Leaders Know That Diversity Matters - Change Your Life through Self-Awareness

Self-Aware Leaders Know That Diversity Matters

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Leaders and organizations are frequently faced with managing diverse staff and bringing them together to support the goals and objectives of the company. Self-aware leaders build workplaces that use their employees’ diverse talents and abilities rather than stifling them or limiting their potential.

In today’s workplace, diversity is no longer an abstract concept but an opportunity to strengthen your company. Here are some focus questions that will help your organization be more self-aware and formulate a diversity plan:

  • What is our company’s overarching philosophy on diversity?
  • What does our workforce look like?
  • What are the elements that unite us?
  • How do we address differences?
  • How do we bring disparate elements together?
  • Does our company have a coherent policy to address diversity?
  • Is our diversity policy enforced and practiced at all levels?
  • Does our workforce reflect diversity at all levels?

Once you have thought through these concepts you will be at a point where you can begin to develop a philosophy, a strategy as well as policies and procedures that will guide you successfully into the future. What will you do to develop self-awareness and value diversity in your workplace?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Aware Leadership and Dealing with Emotions in the Workplace - Change Your Life through Self-Awareness

Self-Aware Leadership and Dealing with Emotions in the Workplace

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Self-aware leaders know how to deal with emotions in the workplace because they are in touch with their and others’ ways of experiencing the world. They’re comfortable with themselves and able to connect with others on a deeper level.

Emotions in the workplace can be a challenging subject because, as leaders, we haven’t been taught what to do with them. The increase in our understanding of emotional intelligence now helps us deal more effectively with emotions in the workplace. We can do this when we understand what emotions mean and how we can create a workplace that encourages people to use them in a positive way.

Where does our discomfort with emotions come from? Many leaders I consult for tell me their stories about not being allowed to express emotions in their families or how there were only certain feelings that were allowed. In some families people aren’t allowed to show fear, in others they can’t be joyful, still others don’t permit sadness. Our parents and their parents before them going back generations didn’t realize that emotions aren’t something to suppress and avoid. Emotions are a natural part of being human. We were designed to feel joy, sadness, anger, fear, affection, loss, numbness and many variations on those themes.

Why did this happen? People lacked the self-awareness to realize that it’s OK to experience emotions. They kept hanging on to assumptions like sadness is weak or joy should be tempered. Oftentimes, it was due to having to survive and not appear weak.  There just weren’t that many alternatives available to our ancestors.

We now have studied the human mind enough to know that experiencing our emotions thoroughly and freely is actually beneficial to us and is a natural part of being a healthy person. It’s when we try to deny that emotions exist that we start making ourselves and each other miserable and creating problems in our lives and workplaces.

The paradox is that it’s  normal to be sad, happy, angry, scared or any feeling you have. If you think about it, they’re your feelings and you’re allowed to experience them. They’re part of being a healthy, self-aware individual.

When you get in touch with your emotions you become stronger and you get to experience life on a deeper level and connect with your colleagues and employees in a different way. Emotions are here to help you. They signal when you are doing great and when you’re not. They aren’t scary or undesirable, they’re just there. Think of all the leaders and employees in the world who work in pain because they deny their emotions. Now think how different their lives and workplace might be if they would just let themselves experience them.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and deal with emotions in the workplace positively?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Aware Leaders Have Great Listening Skills - Change Your Life through Self-Awareness

Self-Aware Leaders Have Great Listening Skills

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One of the most valuable skills self-aware leaders use to encourage effective communication is listening. Many leaders say they’re good listeners but most aren’t. It’s not because they don’t want to listen but rather because our workplaces and leadership styles aren’t designed to promote listening.

Here are some things you can do to be a leader who possess self-awareness and listens well:

1. Don’t talk.

2. Nod and prompt the other person to say more.

3. Ask open-ended questions that don’t have yes or no answers.

4. Lean forward and look interested.

5. Don’t think of the next thing you’re going to say.

6. Don’t think of how you’re going to rebut or contradict a point.

7. Don’t talk.

How many of these behaviors do you practice in the course of your workplace communication? Really listening means listening attentively for meaning. We all understand words but do we really understand what the other person is feeling? Pay attention to what the other person looks like when he or she talks, their demeanor or body language. Do they look upset, do they look confused? Ask open-ended questions that help the other person talk more rather than offering advice or opinions.

If you try some of these ideas you can learn a lot about your employees, co-workers and clients. I also encourage leaders to practice having conversations where they don’t talk at all and just nod. It’s remarkable what you can learn when you don’t talk.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and be a good listener?

Cheers,

Guy

10 Tips to Lead with Increased Self-Awareness - Change Your Life through Self-Awareness

10 Tips to Lead with Increased Self-Awareness

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I consult for a wide range of leaders and organizations and I’m often surprised by the number of individuals who lack self-awareness and lead as if they’ve never considered someone else’s point of view. Some even get into the same types of arguments and interactions that they experienced in their families growing up, which doesn’t tend to lead to amazing results.

Have you ever worked with someone who tried to resolve every problem the same way and ended up fixing nothing and making everyone unhappy? It happens all the time and we call that type of leader a bad boss. Here are some practical things you can do to increase self-awareness and make your leadership skills even stronger:

  1. Figure out and define what you do well and do those things in the workplace.
  2. Identify areas where you could use some help and find people to help you.
  3. Ask your employees where you need some help and listen to their advice.
  4. Be willing to ask for help rather than pretend you know everything.
  5. Be open to information, ideas and perspectives other than your own.
  6. Be willing to change your behavior patterns to improve your workplace.
  7. Admit mistakes rather than covering stuff up to avoid losing face.
  8. Accept change and use it as a catalyst to do new and exciting things.
  9. Delegate and give people the opportunity to grow.
  10. Practice kind behaviors toward everyone at work.

If you practice all ten of these things you already understand what kind of workplace it creates: An environment where employees actually like you and are willing to do more and better work because they’re not miserable. Behaving positively in the workplace leads to better results for you and everyone else.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and lead more effectively?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Leadership Examples - Change Your Life through Self-Awareness

Self-Awareness Leadership Examples

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People frequently ask me to give them examples of self-aware leadership. A good way to demonstrate the difference between leaders who possess self-awareness and those who don’t is to describe how they behave during a training session. Imagine someone who behaves this way:

  • Doesn’t listen.
  • Interrupts.
  • Gets angry.
  • Confrontational.
  • Talks too long.
  • Tells others what to do.
  • Has an opinion on everything.
  • Seeks attention.
  • Uncooperative.

When someone practices these behaviors in a training setting you can pretty much guarantee what they’re like in the workplace. They likely are people who don’t listen, interrupt others, get angry, confront people, talk too long, tell others what to do etc. Very often these individuals don’t realize how they’re behaving because they’re so used to doing things a certain way.

This is why I emphasize self-awareness in my training programs. It’s the ability to take a look at your own behaviors so that you can keep what works well and modify what doesn’t. It’s the capacity to examine who you are and behave in different ways. It means that you understand how your behaviors affect both you and other people. The goal of self-awareness is to become a more effective person and leader. Effective leaders practice the following behaviors the majority of the time:

  • Listen.
  • Don’t Interrupt.
  • Moderate emotions.
  • Communicate instead of confront.
  • Listen more than they talk.
  • Encourage people to work independently.
  • Value other people’s opinions.
  • Give people attention.
  • Cooperate and collaborate with others.

Leadership is often about consciously setting an example of positive behaviors in the workplace. A leader who behaves based on the first list will get predictable results in the form of a dysfunctional workplace while one who practices the behaviors on the second list will move in a more productive direction. There’s no mystery to this process, positive behaviors lead to positive results. What do your behaviors say about you?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy