The Essential First Step in Leadership Development
It has been proven that the most effective people are those who know themselves, their abilities and weaknesses, so they are able to develop strategies that respond to the demands of their environment.
In order to move forward, it is essential to know ourselves in depth, to know our strengths, our areas of improvement and our motivators.
HOW TO DEVELOP OUR POTENTIAL
Let’s take a look at four steps that will help us discover our best version:
Step 1: Take inventory of your personal resources. Until we are aware of what we have, we will not be able to take advantage of it. Nor can we improve anything until we become aware of our limitations. It is about making an inventory of strengths, opportunities, points of improvement and threats where we can evaluate everything that can help us to advance, or on the contrary can hinder or limit our progress.
Tools such as the SWOT would allow us to make this inventory at a personal level, analyzing both internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (threats and opportunities).
Step 2: Identify your motivators. It is very important to know what moves us, what fills us and motivates us, what we are passionate about and that can be our engine in difficult times. That passion can even make the difference between success and failure.
Many times, we may encounter difficulties when performing this type of inventory, especially when it comes to evaluate ourselves, our skills, motivations, etc... Fortunately, there are tools on the market with a scientific basis and with an enormous reliability that can greatly facilitate this task of self-knowledge. For example, some people are highly motivated to lead teams while others may find it uncomfortable and tedious. This can have a great influence when it comes to accepting and exercising a position as a manager.
Step 3: Capitalize on your strengths and opportunities. Once we have this phase of self-knowledge resolved, we should try to answer these questions: What can we improve? How can I enhance my strengths? How can we take advantage of all this? It is about seeking the maximum benefit from all those strengths and opportunities that are presented to us.
Step 4: Minimize your limitations. We have to work on our areas of improvement and obstacles to minimize their impact on achieving our goals. Are you missing a key competency to achieve your goals? What could you do to acquire it? I want to make an aside on this topic: there are times when a limitation can be worked on in such a way that it is not only overcome, but can become a strength.
LEADER SELF-KNOWLEDGE
The first step in working on our leadership is to know ourselves as leaders. We cannot improve if we do not know where we need to focus.?
Most of us think we already know ourselves, and maybe it’s
true that we have a good idea of what we look like, but we can’t be objective with ourselves.
The Johari window displays the following matrix divided into four areas, defined by the information that is transmitted about us:?
According to this, there will be areas of us that others see that we are unable to perceive. Can you imagine what others can see in you that you are not able to see? Would you like to know?
Each and every one of us has strengths and areas for improvement, some of which we already know, but there are others of which we are not aware.
The image we have of ourselves is a biased vision that should be contrasted. The first step to improve is to identify areas for improvement, without this step we will hardly make progress.
When I work with managers on an individual level in Leadership Development processes, the first step of all is this exercise of self-knowledge that will be the basis for the rest of the process.?
领英推荐
There are many tools on the market that are surprisingly accurate: DISC, Belbin, Enneagram, Myer-Briggs, 360, etc. These tools are great allies in the areas of personal development, management development or team diversity management.?
What do we discover in this exercise of self-knowledge?
When we do this phase of self-knowledge there are different areas that are explored and that serve as the basis for the work that is carried out in the Leader Development process.
These are the main points to explore:
Once we have identified your profile and natural leadership style, we can work to adapt your style to each of your collaborators and day-to-day situations.?
What is clear is that not all of us are born with innate abilities to lead, but we can always train ourselves to be good leaders.
When I work with leaders, the use of these tools not only allows my clients to do a tremendous exercise in self-discovery, but also helps me to tailor processes and strategies so that they can?achieve the best results, not only on an individual level but also in their interaction with their team.
To sum up, it is worth doing the exercise of getting to know ourselves better; the first step to develop ourselves is to know where we need to focus and take actions that will help us grow both personally and professionally.
Aligning functions with the potential of each person, both at the individual and team level, is the best way to achieve high performance and personal satisfaction.
And you, do you already know your best version?
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Did you like this post? You can find all this and much more in my book "KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP"
Inma Ríos
Expert in Leadership and Development of High-Performance Teams, is dedicated to guiding Leaders and Teams to achieve their goals, through Training, Mentoring and Personal Development. Engineer with 15 years of experience in multinationals in several countries. Top Women Leaders Award 2022. Speaker and Agile Coach Professional Certified.
More information at www.inmarios.com and Linktree .