As I reflect on my last 10 years as a CEO for private and public companies in the defense, security, logistics and education spheres, I’ve come to recognize one skill that I believe is lacking and even ignored but in my opinion is extremely critical for the growth and success of individuals, teams, organizations and customers: SELF-AWARENESS!!!
Self-Awareness may be one skill that is the most deficient and least discussed among leaders today but possibly one of the most valuable for evolution. Self-awareness is being conscious of what your strengths and weaknesses are while accepting and acknowledging that you can always learn and improve. This includes admitting that you don’t have all the answers and owning up to your mistakes and short comings. Because whether you acknowledge your weaknesses or not, others still sees them. The person who tries to hide weaknesses actually highlights them, creating the perception of a lack of integrity and self-awareness and this negatively impacts their leadership ability. I’ve also notice that leaders who lack self-awareness also try to transfer their insecurities, weaknesses and failures to other. They play the “blame game” and no one wins in the long run.
Even on an interpersonal level, self-awareness of your strengths and weaknesses can net you the trust of others and increase your credibility – both of which will increase your leadership effectiveness. Or, it can be an excuse for saboteurs and charlatans to challenge and try to undermine you. It’s a complex dance of being strong and confident enough to shows your weaknesses but being guarded and cognizant enough to try and improve them while not allowing others to use them to negatively impact you.
On a group/team level, the benefits are even greater and even more complex. When you acknowledge that you are always open to learning, you’re modeling behavior that in your group it’s okay to admit you don’t have all the answers, to make mistakes and most importantly, to ask for help; as a matter of fact, its expected. However, it’s also expected to abandon the status quo and tired past practices to look for creative and disruptive ways to move forward; this is not always easy. But, this is what Lead With Action leadership is all about and these are characteristics of a group that is constantly learning and evolving; necessary elements to create an agile and innovative environment which is essential to produce high performing cultures.
You must know when to use your strength and when to keep it in reserve. This has been a challenge for me. I go a 1,000 MPH, I’m candid, transparent and respectful but I push hard and challenge and these combined can be admired or loathed. Most likely, your strengths are what got you to this point in your career. As your role in your organization changes, you must be careful not to overplay a former strength to the point that it becomes a weakness. I’ve done this. At one company, I told our team at numerous all hands meetings and a national event that I wanted them all to be with the company and moving forward but if they couldn’t get onboard with the new strategy, value proposition and vision, they should leave and go find something else to do that better fit them and made them happy. It didn’t make them or me a bad person; it was just that if the new role I was asking them to execute didn’t fit their skills or what they wanted to do, they should do something else. Well, you would have thought I told some people the sun wouldn’t rise tomorrow and the world would stop rotating. I was told, through the grapevine of course, that I was completely insensitive and disrespectful for saying that and that I knew nothing about leadership, people, the company or our customers! HUH??? Maybe the truth isn’t good for everyone; maybe I should have done more due diligence, read my audience better and better understood their psyche before I was so honest and transparent. However, I also refuse to lower my standards to accommodation people who are unwilling to raise theirs. Nevertheless, my self-awareness recognized this and challenged me to be thoughtful and use the situation to be a time of deep reflection, enlightenment and self-assessment to consider my options and path forward.
Acknowledging the need to become better at anything is only the beginning, and it’s often the most difficult step in the whole process. In many cases, individuals successfully come to the realization that something’s not working but have no clue how to change it into something that works or the desire to do so.
The difficulty to see in yourself what others see so easily is what makes the path to self-awareness so challenging. One way to get started is by soliciting and listening to feedback from those who work with you or engage with you on a personal level. I’ve been fortunate due to my background in the military, intelligence and business worlds to have taken numerous personality profile test and assessments and various 360 multi rater assessments and I’ve had some great mentors. These combined were extremely helpful in providing feedback on all aspects of my personality and behavior to help me address deficient areas. However, this like any personal and professional development skill, it needs to be ongoing and evolving and requires consistent evaluation and training. To do this effectively it requires a high degree of emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence, or EQ as it’s often called, is defined as awareness of your own and others’ emotions, and how they are impacted by situations and your environment, but we will save that for next time.
Lead With Action!!!
As I reflect on my last 10 years as a CEO for private and public companies in the defense, security, logistics and education spheres, I’ve come to recognize one skill that I believe is lacking and even ignored but in my opinion is extremely critical for the growth and success of individuals, teams, organizations and customers: SELF-AWARENESS!!!
Self-Awareness may be one skill that is the most deficient and least discussed among leaders today but possibly one of the most valuable for evolution. Self-awareness is being conscious of what your strengths and weaknesses are while accepting and acknowledging that you can always learn and improve. This includes admitting that you don’t have all the answers and owning up to your mistakes and short comings. Because whether you acknowledge your weaknesses or not, others still sees them. The person who tries to hide weaknesses actually highlights them, creating the perception of a lack of integrity and self-awareness and this negatively impacts their leadership ability. I’ve also notice that leaders who lack self-awareness also try to transfer their insecurities, weaknesses and failures to other. They play the “blame game” and no one wins in the long run.
Even on an interpersonal level, self-awareness of your strengths and weaknesses can net you the trust of others and increase your credibility – both of which will increase your leadership effectiveness. Or, it can be an excuse for saboteurs and charlatans to challenge and try to undermine you. It’s a complex dance of being strong and confident enough to shows your weaknesses but being guarded and cognizant enough to try and improve them while not allowing others to use them to negatively impact you.
On a group/team level, the benefits are even greater and even more complex. When you acknowledge that you are always open to learning, you’re modeling behavior that in your group it’s okay to admit you don’t have all the answers, to make mistakes and most importantly, to ask for help; as a matter of fact, its expected. However, it’s also expected to abandon the status quo and tired past practices to look for creative and disruptive ways to move forward; this is not always easy. But, this is what Lead With Action leadership is all about and these are characteristics of a group that is constantly learning and evolving; necessary elements to create an agile and innovative environment which is essential to produce high performing cultures.
You must know when to use your strength and when to keep it in reserve. This has been a challenge for me. I go a 1,000 MPH, I’m candid, transparent and respectful but I push hard and challenge and these combined can be admired or loathed. Most likely, your strengths are what got you to this point in your career. As your role in your organization changes, you must be careful not to overplay a former strength to the point that it becomes a weakness. I’ve done this. At one company, I told our team at numerous all hands meetings and a national event that I wanted them all to be with the company and moving forward but if they couldn’t get onboard with the new strategy, value proposition and vision, they should leave and go find something else to do that better fit them and made them happy. It didn’t make them or me a bad person; it was just that if the new role I was asking them to execute didn’t fit their skills or what they wanted to do, they should do something else. Well, you would have thought I told some people the sun wouldn’t rise tomorrow and the world would stop rotating. I was told, through the grapevine of course, that I was completely insensitive and disrespectful for saying that and that I knew nothing about leadership, people, the company or our customers! HUH??? Maybe the truth isn’t good for everyone; maybe I should have done more due diligence, read my audience better and better understood their psyche before I was so honest and transparent. However, I also refuse to lower my standards to accommodation people who are unwilling to raise theirs. Nevertheless, my self-awareness recognized this and challenged me to be thoughtful and use the situation to be a time of deep reflection, enlightenment and self-assessment to consider my options and path forward.
Acknowledging the need to become better at anything is only the beginning, and it’s often the most difficult step in the whole process. In many cases, individuals successfully come to the realization that something’s not working but have no clue how to change it into something that works or the desire to do so.
The difficulty to see in yourself what others see so easily is what makes the path to self-awareness so challenging. One way to get started is by soliciting and listening to feedback from those who work with you or engage with you on a personal level. I’ve been fortunate due to my background in the military, intelligence and business worlds to have taken numerous personality profile test and assessments and various 360 multi rater assessments and I’ve had some great mentors. These combined were extremely helpful in providing feedback on all aspects of my personality and behavior to help me address deficient areas. However, this like any personal and professional development skill, it needs to be ongoing and evolving and requires consistent evaluation and training. To do this effectively it requires a high degree of emotional intelligence. Emotional Intelligence, or EQ as it’s often called, is defined as awareness of your own and others’ emotions, and how they are impacted by situations and your environment, but we will save that for next time.
Lead With Action!!!
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