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How important is self-awareness for leaders?
How well do you know yourself?
Do you know what motivates and inspires you? What makes you tick?
Last month I spent some time in sunny Florida (well, actually, it rained for two days) at a conference for consultants, coaches, and business owners.
One of the most eye-opening parts of the program was an exercise on finding out our inner motivators. We used a tool called Motivational Maps.
https://www.motivationalmaps.com/
And it turns out that I’m a ‘Spirit’. Someone who’s deeply motivated by personal growth. I’m particularly driven by opportunities to make my own decisions, to innovate, and to make a difference.
I’m far less inspired by opportunities for self-promotion, power and control, and I don’t enjoy following the rules!
Which explains why I don’t do as much social media as I should, and why I have a very small support team because I don’t particularly enjoy managing and controlling people.
But what about you????
1. Think of 3 activities you love doing at work
2. Now think of 3 activities that you’d rather not do, or that cause you to procrastinate
3. Can you find ways to do more of the ones you love and less of the ones you don’t?
There are lots of different personality testing tools out there – some better than others.
And even if psychometric tests aren’t your thing, at a minimum I’d suggest you figure out your top 10 values in life and work. If you’ve never looked at these, then go ahead and use a test like the Barrett Personal Values assessment to find yours. https://www.valuescentre.com/tools-assessments/pva/
An understanding of your values will, at a minimum, help to explain why certain activities excite and inspire you while others drain and demotivate you.
The relationship between self-awareness and leadership success
So why is it important to work out your internal drivers? Why should we take the time to learn what it is that lights our internal fire?
It’s important because self-awareness is critical, especially for leaders.
Alongside empathy, it plays a huge factor in determining leadership success.
With self-awareness, you can build a team that compensates for your weaknesses, understand what triggers you and a whole host of other activities that will help ensure improved performance.
And regardless of whether or not you’re a leader in your organization or social group, we ALL need to at least lead ourselves, and have relationships with others, so I’d suggest that self-awareness is necessary for all of us.
Take a look at this article on self-awareness in leadership to find out more. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6097-self-awareness-in-leadership.html
Self-awareness is one of the five components of emotional intelligence.
Empathy is another.
Recently, I’ve started delivering a brand new Empathy keynote – Empathy Skills for a High Performing Culture. This keynote discusses the importance of connection, perspective-taking, feedback and encouragement when creating a successful work environment.
There are also several opportunities for audience members to reflect and increase their own self-awareness during the session.
I designed it for a client who wanted me to keynote on empathy for a second year running at their D&I summit but had already heard my Elevating Empathy keynote.
The session has been receiving feedback such as ‘Thank you so much for your wonderful talk about Empathy. It’s such an important topic and you made it so digestible. This resonated so strongly with me and I know I will take it with me throughout life.’
If you’re curious about this new keynote, please drop us a line at teamshola@sholakaye.net and we can send you our Autumn 2022 brochure with a full description!
Communication Corner: How self-awareness will improve your communication
In keeping with the theme of self-awareness, take a look at these articles on how self-awareness will improve your communication.
For example, self-awareness allows you to get out of the way and let people tell you what’s important to them without letting your ‘stuff’ complicate the interaction.
It also gives you the ability to shift from always having to talk (the result of ego) to listening to people instead.
In keeping with the theme of self-awareness, take a look at these articles on how self-awareness will improve your communication.
For example, self-awareness allows you to get out of the way and let people tell you what’s important to them without letting your ‘stuff’ complicate the interaction.
It also gives you the ability to shift from always having to talk (the result of ego) to listening to people instead.
https://www.theselfawarenessguy.com/4573/self-awareness-and-effective-communication
Self-awareness is such an important skill. The relationship you have with yourself sets the tone for the relationships you have with everyone in your life.
Just as you’d take the time to get to know a new partner or friend, give yourself some precious moments to get to know yourself a little better.
It’ll be time well spent 🙂
Yours in self-discovery,
Shola
Hi, I’m Shola and I help you create a people-first culture. My work sits at the intersection of Inclusion, Communication & Emotional Intelligence.
My keynote talks and workshops help your leaders and employees create high-performing work environments where people feel a sense of belonging and psychological safety. Sessions are high energy, interactive, and every participant walks away with at least one practical framework for connecting and collaborating more effectively.
Sound good to you? Please reach out and let’s discuss your next event! 🙂🎤✨