Self-Awareness in Leadership

10 Ways Leaders Who Lack Self-Awareness Lose Employees - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

10 Ways Leaders Who Lack Self-Awareness Lose Employees

/ / Self-Awareness in Leadership / ,

Leaders who lack self-awareness do a lot of things that alienate their employees and then shake their heads and wonder why things got out of hand when the person leaves the organization. One of the key elements of inspirational leadership is to remember that you’re there to interact positively and make things easier for the people around you. The less challenges and obstacles your employees have, the better you’ll look and the less time you’ll spend trying to put the pieces back together. Here are ten ways that leaders lose employees:

  1. Treat people uncourteously or disrespectfully.
  2. Don’t recognize or put to use people’s talents and abilities.
  3. Put people in jobs they hate and give them no opportunity to grow.
  4. Don’t listen to people.
  5. Inability or refusal to fix things when they go awry.
  6. Regularly get into a conflicts.
  7. Insist you’re right and they’re wrong.
  8. Read the employee the policy handbook instead of working with them to resolve an issue.
  9. Not knowing how to communicate effectively.
  10. Lack of follow-through.

The secret to enlightened leadership is to do the opposite of these things. Treat people like they really matter and show them you care deeply about their well-being and growth and you’ll create a workplace where individuals feel important and work accordingly. If you currently do any of these things, think of ways to replace the behavior with one that leads in a more positive direction and you’ll be on your way to creating a more positive workplace. What will you do to keep your employees happily working for your organization?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness, Leadership, and Achieving Your Goals - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness, Leadership, and Achieving Your Goals

/ / Self-Awareness in Leadership / ,

When I help leaders achieve their goals they often encounter certain transition periods where it’s difficult to make it to the next level. This is perfectly normal because there is a natural ebb and flow to achieving your goals. Sometimes there is a lot of movement and in other instances there is little change.

Being an excellent leader and achieving your goals requires self-awareness, which means that you understand how your emotions, thoughts, and actions affect you, the people around you, and your organization. Being self-aware means that you really know yourself and are able to set and meet goals that are healthy and positive for you and others.

Once you build up your self-awareness, there are five steps you can take to increase your chances of success and avoid feeling stuck:

  1. Set a clear goal and keep it simple.
  2. Take one small action per day to achieve your goal.
  3. Review the result of your action and either do another or move on to the next action.
  4. Keep doing things.  It doesn’t matter what you do, just keep taking small actions.
  5. Celebrate along the way.  Pat yourself on the back when you notice a positive development.

The major elements that will help you achieve your goals are to build up your self-awareness and keep taking action. Many leaders get discouraged and give up too soon because they don’t keep moving forward. Success comes from constantly and consistently working on things. Try these five steps and measure where you are a month from now, you’ll likely appreciate what you’ve been able to achieve.

What will you do to develop your self-awareness and achieve your goals?

Cheers,

Guy

Leadership, Lack of Self-Awareness, and Workplace Communication - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Leadership, Lack of Self-Awareness, and Workplace Communication

/ / Self-Awareness Comes From, Self-Awareness in Leadership / , ,

Most leaders will tell you that communication is vital to a well-functioning workplace. Then they demonstrate their lack of self-awareness by screaming, ignoring, dominating, misunderstanding or annoying their employees. There is a huge gap between what leaders say they know about effective communication and what they actually practice. Here are five of the biggest workplace communication mistakes.

1.  Not listening. How can you gather the information you need or figure out what is going on in your workplace if you don’t listen? You can’t. Listening is the most vital skill to acquire information, promote collaboration and build trust in the workplace.

2.  Assuming you know what the other person is going to say. Cutting people off because you’ve “heard it all before” or you’re irritated is a great way to tell your employees they don’t matter. Try listening to your employees without interrupting before you decide you know what they’re talking about.

3.  Thinking of the next thing you want to say instead of what the other person is saying. Many leaders are obsessed with the next wonderful thing they’re going to say. Fight this urge by clearing your mind before and while you’re listening to your employees and focusing on understanding what they’re saying.

4.  Getting angry or upset and reacting negatively to what you’re hearing. Your employees will be much less likely to share information or ideas with you if you always fly off the handle. Communication doesn’t have to be a constant struggle. Work on controlling your own emotions so you can communicate on a deeper level with your employees.

5.  Not setting aside time to talk. Hurried conversations often end up in misunderstandings because the participants haven’t devoted the time necessary to get on the same page. Make sure your important conversations are carried out with plenty of time for each participant to understand what’s being said.

Do you recognize yourself in any of these five concepts? If so, no worries, simply make small adjustments to develop your self-awareness and move toward a more balanced communication style that will get you better results. Effective communication is about practicing positive behaviors every day, not just saying you do. What will you do to increase your self-awareness and practice effective communication?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Can Help You Practice Effective Team Building - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Can Help You Practice Effective Team Building

/ / Self-Awareness Comes From, Self-Awareness in Leadership / , , ,

A lot of leaders and organizations want to practice effective team building but don’t have the self-awareness to actually do it. I often hear people in workplaces saying things out loud that illustrate why they aren’t building teams, but they’re not aware they’re doing it. People have beliefs hardwired inside them that they don’t even realize get in the way of bringing employees together and encouraging them to collaborate. Here are ten of the most prevalent beliefs that show a lack of self-awareness and that block team building.

  1. They’ll never get along. If you believe people won’t get along they’ll prove you right almost every time.
  2. We’re rugged individualists. Individuals functioning in this way aren’t as adept at working in teams as people who believe in collaboration.
  3. If you want it done right do it yourself. If you’re doing everything it leaves your team stranded and feeling like they can’t do anything right.
  4. Teams must have a strong leader. It’s often the strong leader that gets in the way of everyone having a voice and participating actively.
  5. Collaboration was fine in kindergarten but this is the real world. If you believe this then I know how you practice team building.
  6. Everybody has a specific job. This keeps people firmly in their boxes and discourages creativity.
  7. Team building is secondary to productivity. Many leaders overlook the idea that if you build a strong foundation of high-functioning teams you become more productive.
  8. Team building is too touchy-feely. Leaders who believe this create workplaces that only allow three feelings: forced happiness, fear and anger.
  9. I don’t have to participate. Nothing says you lack commitment to team building than not participating in it with your employees.
  10. I don’t have time for team building. This is like saying you don’t have time to build a roof over your building because you’ve got to get to work and then it rains and soaks everything.

Self-aware leaders understand that team building is a vital building block to create workplaces where people interact positively and help each other get things done. The way you actually build teams is to have the self-awareness to objectively review and understand the team building strengths and areas for improvement in your workplace and take action in small increments over time. You might offer ongoing team building training or provide opportunities for people to work together to solve problems. Some organizations form brainstorming groups that tackle thorny issues. The idea is to gradually build a workplace where working collaboratively is encouraged. What will you do to create a culture of self-awareness and team building in your organization?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness, Team Building, and Workplace Relationships - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness, Team Building, and Workplace Relationships

/ / Self-Awareness in Leadership / , ,

If you’re a leader who possesses self-awareness, then you know how important team building and promoting positive workplace relationships are to creating a healthy, high-functioning organization.

The leaders and employees I consult with frequently talk to me about not feeling like they connect with certain people in the workplace. It’s almost as if they lack self-awareness and expect the other person to behave a certain way or read their mind. This is a very common experience in workplace relationships: One person expects a certain kind of interaction while the other seems oblivious. This dynamic leads to a lot of frustrated people and poorly functioning teams.

The difficulty arises when people hold on to their expectations even when they see repeated evidence that they will never get what  they want. They hang on to their hopes for a long time waiting for something to magically change. Their expectations can easily become an obstacle to building positive workplace relationships because they expect things to go a certain way rather than working on improving their own self-awareness and dealing with what’s actually happening.

No amount of hope can change the course of your work relationships and you can’t wish your way out of a negative situation. The only way you can introduce positive energy into your relationships is by having the self-awareness to do things that change the patterns you’ve established.

Changing the way you do things is the only way to affect your situation. No amount of hope or expectations can take the place of being self-aware and applying effective behaviors such as excellent communication, team building or problem solving skills. The great news is that you can do things to change the course of your work relationships, it just requires some courage and taking action to move in a different direction.

What will you do to use self-awareness to promote team building and positive workplace relationships?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Facilitates Team Building and Reduces Conflict in the Workplace - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Facilitates Team Building and Reduces Conflict in the Workplace

/ / Self-Awareness in Leadership / , , ,

Conflict in the workplace can be painful and sap your energy. My clients who lack self-awareness often ask me what to do about a employee who they can’t get along with or people who are in constant conflict. It can be tricky to deal with workplace conflict because most organizations don’t have strategies beyond reprimands and other punishments.

Our workplaces are often places where we give people a free pass to hurt each other because we lack the self-awareness to do anything else. We like to think we know how to deal with conflict but we end up enduring feuds that last years.

So how can you reduce conflict in your workplace and increase self-awareness? Here’s a couple of ideas to think about:

1. Develop a strategy to deal with conflict. Set up clear goals, expectations and parameters and ask for input from leadership and staff.

2. Inform everyone that this is the new way of doing things and train them to make sure everyone is on the same page.

3. Inform your workplace that you have resources in place to help people work things out.

4. Work with your leaders and employees to give them the skills to resolve their own conflicts.

5. Set the example and consistently behave in a way that reduces conflict.

6. Develop an ongoing conflict resolution training program and participate actively in it.

7. Expect resistance to your new ideas about conflict. Things will settle in once you train people and they get a chance to practice the new skills.

Healthy workplaces help their leaders and employees resolve their own conflicts in peaceful and lasting ways. As a leader, you set the example for how conflict is viewed and dealt with in your organization. You can start designing a conflict resolution program today that will help you create a workplace where people get along and aren’t at each other’s throats all the time.

What will you do to develop self-awareness, build stronger teams, and reduce conflict in your workplace?

Cheers,

Guy

Stubborn Leaders Lack Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Stubborn Leaders Lack Self-Awareness

/ / Self-Awareness in Leadership / ,

Leaders who lack self-awareness sometimes think that being stubborn is the same as being right about something. They hang on to their position no matter what happens because they just don’t see any other option. There’s nothing terribly wrong with this behavior but it does affect the leader and team involved; usually in less than positive ways. Here’s a couple of things to think about if you know someone who is amazingly stubborn:

Being Stubborn is a Defense Mechanism

People who are stubborn hang on to their beliefs at all costs because they feel they are defending something very important. Even if the issue doesn’t seem important to others, it is to them.  People in this situation frequently believe that if they give up their position, something terrible will happen.

Being Stubborn is a Dead End Street

Once someone decides to be stubborn they have painted themselves into a corner because they severely limit any options to fix anything. They hang onto their point of view no matter what and literally can’t explore other options because they don’t allow for any.

What is Right?

Stubborn people frequently think they are right but, if you think about it, what’s right and what’s wrong? We can usually measure what’s right by whether the results of a given behavior leads to positive outcomes. Yet most stubborn behavior just leads to entrenchment. I’m not certain most people would say that being stuck is the same as being right or happy.

So What Can We Do?

Stubbornness can be a daunting challenge. Some people are so stubborn that they will live a miserable life just to prove their point. The only real way to alleviate stubbornness to practice self-awareness and get help to interrupt the behavior patterns and beliefs that led to the current situation. There’s not much other people can do except make themselves available to talk with the person and set limits and boundaries.

Being stubborn rarely leads to positive results and it isn’t very effective at creating inspiring workplaces. The good news is that the cycle can be interrupted by taking a good look at oneself and slightly shifting the behaviors that lead to being stubborn. The result?  Greater happiness and more successful leaders.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and avoid being a stubborn leader?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy