Self-Awareness in Leadership

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Self-Aware Leaders Welcome Uncertainty and Doubt

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Many leaders who lack self-awareness run around like the sky is falling instead of realizing that uncertainty and doubt can be excellent opportunities to reevaluate and make positive changes. It seems like many workplaces function on doubt, doom and gloom. The ironic thing is that uncertainty and doubt can actually be catalysts for building self-awareness and creating great workplaces. Here’s what some smart people say about the subject:

Alfred Korzybski:

There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking.

Andre Gide:

Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.

Erich Fromm:

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.

Frank Crane:

You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don’t trust enough.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.

As a leader, you have the ability to focus in any way you see fit. You can pretend to know everything and make decisions based on ego or you can be open to new information and change.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and welcome uncertainty and doubt?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy