Leadership and Self-Awareness

Leadership and self-awareness go hand in hand to build happy workplaces but many leaders have no clue how their actions affect the people around them and the well-being of their organizations. They stumble through their days working out their personal issues on people without realizing what they’re doing.

Leaders with self-awareness have the ability to manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors so that they treat themselves and others positively. Most leaders have little to no understanding of how they affect the people around them so they spend the day bossing everyone around instead of inspiring them. Here are five signs you’re practicing leadership with self-awareness:

1. You don’t bark orders.
2. You create a work environment where people motivate themselves from within.
3. You don’t picture yourself as a fearless leader steering a ship through turbulent waters.
4. You work collaboratively for the collective good.
5. Your staff genuinely likes you.
6. You appreciate feedback and do something positive with it.
7. You’re constantly growing.
8. You delegate often and well.
9. You don’t get into power struggles.
10. There is low turnover in your department or company.
11. There is very little conflict in your organization.
12. You communicate well because you’re an active listener.
13. You’re a balanced, likable person.
14. You don’t lead through fear but rather through kindness and compassion.
15. You have empathy.

Leaders who possess self-awareness get a lot more done with less effort. There’s no mystery to becoming more self-aware, you just have to work at it every day. Try picking one of the items on the list and practicing it until you get good at it, then move on to the next. Before you know it, you’ll be leading with self-awareness. What will you do to get the process going?

Cheers,

Guy