Successful leaders create a positive and vibrant work environment where everyone feels valued and appreciated. They possess a blend of skills, qualities, and characteristics that enable them to inspire, motivate, and guide their team to consistently deliver. Nevertheless, there is one quality that universally defines leaders of every kind - self-awareness.
What is self-awareness?
Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and understand one's own thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It involves having a clear perception of one's personality traits, strengths, and weaknesses, and how one is perceived by others.
Self-awareness is often considered a key component of emotional intelligence and is associated with higher levels of personal and professional success, as well as better interpersonal relationships.
The benefits of self-awareness in leadership
Companies with strong financial performance tend to have employees with higher levels of self-awareness than poorly performing companies.
Self-aware leaders recognise their own strengths and vulnerabilities. By understanding their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviours they can better respond to situations quickly and effectively, as they are able to manage their emotions and communicate effectively with others.
A leader who is self-aware will:
Make better-informed decisions: When a leader is aware of their own biases, values, and beliefs, they can make more objective decisions. This means that they are less likely to make decisions based on personal feelings or opinions, and more likely to make decisions based on facts and data.
Communicate effectively: Leaders who are aware of their own emotions and triggers are better able to manage their reactions and respond appropriately to others. This helps to build trust and respect with team members and creates a positive work environment.
Manage emotional intelligence: Self-aware leaders recognise and manage their own emotions and the emotions of others. Self-awareness is a key component of emotional intelligence. Leaders who are self-aware are better able to understand and manage their own emotions, as well as empathise with others. This leads to more positive relationships with team members and greater team cohesion.
Resolve conflict effectively: Conflict is inevitable in any team or organisation. However, leaders who are self-aware are better equipped to handle conflicts in a constructive manner. They remain calm and objective and are better able to understand the perspectives of others. This helps to de-escalate conflicts and find solutions that work for everyone involved.
Self-Management: Self-awareness allows leaders to manage themselves better. Leaders who are aware of their own strengths and weaknesses are better able to set realistic goals, manage their time effectively, and prioritise tasks. This leads to greater productivity and better outcomes for the organization.
By cultivating self-awareness, leaders can improve their own performance and create a more positive and productive work environment for their team members.
How to improve your self-awareness?
Here are some actionable steps that can help you to develop your self-awareness in a business context:
1. Identify external influences
Look at external events, situations, or circumstances that influence your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, they can be both negative and positive. They impact on how you respond and react to certain factors.
Pay attention to how you react to different situations. Do certain events or circumstances make you feel anxious, stressed, or angry?
Think about situations in the past that have triggered negative emotions or behaviours. Are there any common themes or patterns?
Are there any particular places, people, or objects that seem to affect your mood or behaviour?
By becoming more aware of your external influences, you can start to develop strategies to manage them and prevent them from negatively affecting your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours.
2. Reflect on past experiences
Reflecting on your past experiences, both positive and negative, can provide insight into how you have grown and developed as a professional. It can also help you identify patterns in your behaviour and decision-making.
3. Seek feedback
Gathering feedback from colleagues, superiors, and clients can provide you with valuable insights into your strengths and areas for improvement. It is important to be open and receptive to feedback to foster growth and development.
4. Challenge your assumptions
As a business professional, it is essential to recognise and challenge your assumptions to gain a broader perspective. By embracing diverse perspectives and concepts, you nurture your personal progress and advancement, while also creating a sense of validation and inclusivity for those in your environment. Seek out diverse viewpoints and consider different approaches to problem-solving.
5. Self-compassion
Practising self-compassion is critical to developing self-awareness in the business world. It involves being kind to yourself, acknowledging your limitations, and treating yourself with the same understanding and support you would offer to others.
What makes self-aware leaders different?
Self-awareness allows leaders to understand their own strengths, weaknesses, values, and emotions. By knowing themselves well, they can make better decisions, communicate more effectively, resolve conflicts and lead with authenticity.
Self-aware leaders are also better equipped to handle criticism and learn from their mistakes, which helps them to continuously improve.
How can businesses encourage self-awareness?
A culture of self-awareness is key to gaining the trust of team members, it raises the awareness of the business’s strengths and weaknesses, and it also highlights any hidden biases or blind spots that may be prevalent in the organisation.
360-degree feedback helps leaders, managers and team members develop their self-awareness. They develop an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses from a variety of perspectives. It encourages constructive feedback and can provide valuable insight into training and development needs.
Supportive Solutions approach
If you’re interested in finding out more about how you could develop your leadership and management team, then contact us for an informal chat.
Our leadership and management training prospectus provides an overview of our courses. We provide a range of flexible delivery options, as well as bespoke training packages.
