Lack of self-awareness leads to insecure leaders who are unable to run their organizations effectively or interact positively with their employees. They focus way too much on unhealthy and unproductive behaviors rather than building positive, supportive, flexible workplaces.
Insecure leaders often do negative things in the workplace because they don’t feel great about themselves deep down inside, which comes from a lack of self-awareness about their own emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, and how they impact others in the workplace.
Leaders display insecure behavior for many reasons including because they are frightened, feel threatened, are not in control of their own actions or emotions or feel like they are not important enough. Some leaders withdraw when they are insecure and others become overbearing or require a lot of support and attention. Regardless of how you behave, insecurity is about how you feel about yourself. So what can you do to feel great about yourself and your leadership abilities.
Consider the following ideas to boost your self-awareness and reduce your insecurity.
Characteristics of Secure Leaders
- Aren’t threatened by others and don’t need to dominate.
- Listen well and don’t talk on top of others.
- Don’t require attention all the time.
- Are comfortable with other people’s success.
- Don’t feel they have to win.
- Don’t put other people down to make themselves feel better.
Characteristics of Insecure Leaders
- Threatened by others.
- Talk a lot to get attention.
- Need to be the center of attention.
- Jealous of other people’s success.
- Competitive, always need to win.
- Put people down to feel better.
Which list do your behaviors reflect more often? If you see yourself on the insecure side, it’s not the end of the world, all you have to do is increase some of the positive traits. Even highly insecure people can feel better about themselves by practicing behaviors that allow them to experience their own success and help others do the same.
Leaders can increase their self-awareness by working out their own personal issues and finding ways to use their talents and abilities in the workplace. When you focus on building yourself up in positive ways you can then do the same for your workplace and employees. Being confident takes some practice but you’ll get to enjoy a more rewarding work life.
What will you do to develop your self-awareness and be a healthy, secure leader?
Cheers,
Guy