Self-Aware Leadership : Transform your mindset

Welcome to the 3rd edition of ‘Leadership Wellspring’ newsletter. Thankyou subscribers for your interest to BECOME A SUCCESSFUL LEADER.

Research papers and Leadership courses from Harvard University & University of Illinois gave me a new meaning to leadership & created a huge impact on my leadership style. In this edition, as a practitioner, I will be sharing the key take aways from my learning experience about the importance of self-awareness for leaders.

Leaving out exceptionals, generally a leader is never born. Circumstances & situations influence to shape up oneself to develop certain qualities quickly to become a great leader. Leadership is an art. Anyone with right attitude can learn & develop leadership muscle by taking conscious and continuous ACTIONS.

My quest on leadership helped me identify the first & foremost pre-requisite to become a successful leader. It is the realization of true-self; stop being just a spectator for ourselves; the need for jump into the playground and start taking action.

Many professionals work for hefty pay checks inspite of not enjoying the organizational culture. Though one can blame their life priorities and personal situations to live such life, but they need to be aware of the trade-offs while making such decisions. There is no right or wrong decision as long as one has done the evaluation of the facts properly & can justify to self, the decision is aligned with their core values & priorities in life. But a job that you don’t love will lead to a mediocre performance and in a long run creates frustration and stress, sometimes leading to chronic diseases. This is why self-awareness becomes vital for everyone, not just for leaders.

“Fill up your cup so that you can overflow into the lives of others”

A true leader is the one who is self-aware of his/her purpose in life. Develops a clear understanding of passion and works towards creating a purpose driven meaningful life. One can identify their true passion at the age of 6 or 60, that doesn’t matter, but being on a constant quest until you identify our purpose in life is important. Nothing in life is truly fulfilling if one can jump out of bed everyday to accomplish your dreams.?

We all have to be born twice.?First we are 'born' when we come to this earth.?Second time we are 'born' when we find our PURPOSE.? -???Ambrish Chheda

SELF-AWARENESS

Knowing ourself is the true wisdom. It is all about knowing our values, aspirations, desires, strengths, weaknesses, interests, feelings, emotions, behaviours, reactions, etc to lead an authentic life. This helps in playing on our strengths and seek improvement on certain areas to become the best version of ourselves. Being self-aware gives one the power to influence outcomes. It helps in decision-making and boosts self-confidence and creativity.

There are two distinct types of self-awareness that has no correlation to each other.

Internal self-awareness

This is all about how clearly we see ourself. An awareness on one’s own personality traits. To simply put, it is ‘What you think about yourself’. It is associated with job satisfaction and happiness quotient. Developing belief and confidence in our own ability and having sense of our personal worth is vital for leading a fulfilling life.

Dr.Eurich’s seven dimensional framework can help achieving personal mastery of being truly aware about oneself. Ask yourself right questions to self discover your answers for all seven dimensions. Sample questions provided below can guide you for a thorough self-reflection exercise.

1.????? Values

Ask yourself questions like, ‘How do you differentiate ‘good’ and ‘bad’ ? What is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ for you ? What is that you stand for?’ What principles/beliefs are most important to you?

?2.????? Passion

Ask yourself questions like, ‘What do you enjoy doing ? What is the legacy you want to leave to the world? What is your purpose in life?’

?3.????? Aspirations

Ask yourself questions like,’ What does success mean for you ? What are your aims you are striving for? What do you want to achieve in personal life? What do you want to become in your career? What is that you want to make it happen in life ?’

4.????? Fit with our Environment ?/ Influence

Ask yourself questions like, ‘What is the best work environment according to you? What kind of environment help you thrive? What does best work culture mean? What are your expectation from workplace or relationships ?

5.????? Patterns

Ask yourself questions like, ‘What are those challenging moments in your past where you exhibited certain powerful skills to solve it ? What are those events where you struggled? How have you navigated important situations in your life? How they have shaped up your thoughts and beliefs ? How is your past influencing your inner voice – positively or negatively ?

6.????? Reactions

Ask yourself questions like ‘What was your reaction to tough events in the past?, How do you handle your weaknesses? What are you doing to improve your weak areas in your life? How are you acting on your strengths? How well do you manage your emotions? How have you reacted (instead of responding) during tough challenges in life? Do you give your happiness remote control to people around?’

7.????? Impact on Others

Ask yourself questions like ‘Do you motivate others in any meaningful way? How do you create value for others in a gathering or during a team meeting? Do you truly care to improve anyone’s life without expecting anything in return? How can you contribute to change the world? What is that you can do to make the world a better place to live and thrive?

Regularly reflecting on your answers for the above 7 dimensions frequently, one could easily improve our self-awareness.

Practicing mindfulness meditation, developing gratitude, daily journaling, examining reactions & reflecting helps becoming more self-aware.

Generally, highly self-aware leaders ask, solution focused ‘WHAT’ questions instead of emotionally loaded ‘WHY’ questions. For example, Instead of asking, ‘Why did I behave like that with my team?’ , ask ‘What went wrong there? What made me behave like that? What could be done to prevent that in future? What can I do better?. This will eventually lead to take actions (instead of rationalizing or burdening yourself with why question).

Personality tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), High 5 strengths test or the Big 5 Personality Tests (FFM) can help improving your internal self-awareness.

When we know WHY we do WHAT we do, everything falls into place. When we don’t, we have to push things into place. -??Simon Sinek

External self-awareness??????????????

This is all about your awareness on how others see you. Leaders those who are good in external self-awareness are found to be showing empathy and compassion, creates better relationships at workplace and generally more effective.

To improve your external self-awareness, create a safe environment where people around you can openly share their honest feedback. Having a loving critic is essential to know and improve yourself. Give importance to 360 degree feedbacks to genuinely understand how others are seeing you and use it as an opportunity to improve. Develop inner circle of relationships for yourself who authentically shares your areas of improvement.

Knowing internal and external self-awareness, use the 2x2 matrix created below and assess yourself where you stand. This can help to set goals and take action to improvise your positioning.

Seeker’s Zone - Low Internal Self-awareness & Low External Self-awareness:????????????????

You feel struck due to lack of clarity. No clear picture on who you are and how others see you. Frustrated with work and relationships.

Introspector’s Zone - High Internal Self-awareness & Low External Self-awareness:???????????????????????????

Clear on who you are but not aware of blindspots. You don’t challenge your own perspectives and seek improvement by actively asking for external feedback.

People Pleaser’s Zone - Low Internal Self-awareness & High External Self-awareness: ??????????

You lead an inauthentic life, focused to look good for others and make choices for others’ sake instead of giving importance to self interest, beliefs and intuition.

Leader’s Zone - High Internal Self-awareness & High External Self-awareness:?????????????????????????????????????????

You know who you are and how world looks at you. You are self-aware, authentic and passionate to accomplish your dreams and actively seek feedback from others. You thrive as a star performer & change maker.

Anyone good in internal self-awareness need not be good in external self-awareness and vice-versa. Mastering both types of self-awareness is crucial for leaders.? Self-awareness is a critical trait for a successful leader. It is important for a leader to learn how to be a spectator to our own thoughts, especially when you become emotional. A leader can thrive in a organization, if the personal values matches closely with the organization’s vision, mission & core values. Once a leader is self aware, he/she needs to extend the curiosity to develop awareness on your team.

Practice mindfulness exercises, know your personal vision, strengths and weaknesses, always seek 360 degree feedback. Identify mentors to help you skyrocket your performance.

Become the kind of leader people would follow voluntarily, even if you had no title or position.?????? - Brain Tracy

Story Time : Leadership Lesson – Are you leading by example ?

A woman walked many miles along with her son to visit Gandhiji at his ashram and requested him to advice her son to stop eating sugar.?After listening to the request, Gandhiji asked her to bring him back after a month. The mother returned home confused and disappointed.

?After a month, when she returned, Gandhiji told the boy to stop eating sugar stating how it impacts health and the boy promised to do so, as he carried huge respect for him. ?The mother became curious and asked Gandhiji why he refused to speak her son during her earlier visit. Gandhiji replied, "Before I could tell your son, I had to stop eating sugar myself".?

If you want to be a leader who wants to be listened to, then you should lead as an example for things that you want others to follow. Change yourself by taking right actions, to create a impact on the world around you.

Model Integrity. Lead boldly. Serve selflessly.

Stay tuned for more captivating content in our next edition !