If you want to grow as a leader, you must first know yourself. You need to recognize your talents and skills and build skills around your talents.
Talents come in different formats. Skills develop well when there is a natural aptitude and interest. First try to identify your interest and that will guide you to your suitability. Assess your strengths and weaknesses.
Whether you are an engineer, an economics graduate or a student of history, try to understand which part of your academic skills appeals to you most or which subjects you score easily. Discover the talent within you.
Read more and discuss your thoughts with professors and friends, to develop your skills.
Being self-aware can help you understand yourself very well and get along with others easily. It improves your emotional intelligence and builds your leadership skills. Emotional Intelligence is the art of controlling and judiciously expressing emotions to influence and inspire interpersonal relationships.
Emotional intelligence is based on four pillars: self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness and relationship management.
Self-awareness helps you quickly correct your mistakes and recover from failures effectively. You accept your shortcomings and earn respect from others. It promotes tolerance of the ideas and beliefs of others.
It helps you remove negative thoughts from your mind and replace them with positive thoughts. It helps you manage your time and prioritize your tasks. It helps you embrace change and increase adaptability.
As human beings we make many mistakes, but we must learn to accept them graciously to grow as leaders.
This is only possible if you are aware of yourself. For example, Warren Buffett makes a decision and analyzes his decision later. It helps him understand his decisions and assess his progress.
Self-awareness increases your self-confidence. It helps you understand who you are as a person, professional and social animal. It helps you achieve success quickly and give meaning to your life.
“Having greater self-awareness or understanding means having a better understanding of reality.” – Dalai Lama
Tips, tools and techniques to increase self-awareness
Self-awareness leads to self-evaluation and self-improvement. It helps leaders understand themselves and overcome their blind spots. Here are some popular tips, tools, and techniques to increase self-awareness.
- Take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test to understand your personality type. It helps you interact with others easily.
- Invest some time every day to think – Before you go to sleep, think about the whole day you have spent. What was the best thing you did all day? What was the best thing that happened to you, even if you didn’t plan it? What was the worst? If you could change one thing about your day, what would it be and how? The answers to such questions will prepare you for a better “next time.”
- Write down your thoughts in your diary and analyze them after a few days. It helps you understand and assess yourself.
- Discover what turns you on and off. Try new things and write down what you liked and what you didn’t. For example, some people feel energized by dancing, and others feel rejuvenated by sitting on the couch with a book. Knowing what you like and what you don’t says a lot about your personality.
- Set your goals and work towards them. You understand your true capabilities and can unlock your hidden potential. What do you want in 5 years? Write it down. Those are your long-term goals. Make sure they are realistic for you. Going to the moon wouldn’t be a realistic goal if you majored in English literature. Once the long-term goals have been mapped out, divide them into milestones. Set annual goals that will lead you to long-term goals. Those are your short-term goals.
- Cultivate the art of writing. It helps you explore your mind and vent your feelings and emotions. It could be a fictional story or your feelings about a social issue. Or just something that happened at home. Keep a diary. If there is something you don’t like, write down what you can do personally to change it. This will change you as a person for the better.
- Read books regularly. If you’re not a natural reader, start with topics that interest you. Books lead you to a world you have not yet experienced. Put yourself in those situations and think about what you would do. Analyze and rate the book.
- Write your failure resume. Do this as honestly as possible. Write down every personal, social, academic, or professional failure that has bothered you. Writing is letting go of the burden on your brain. Now ask yourself what should have been the most appropriate route that you should have taken but didn’t take.
- Have an open mind and listen to all sources. The art of listening is very important. Even if you disagree with someone, it doesn’t mean the other person is wrong. It just means that the other person has a different perspective. Understanding that will increase your flexibility.
- Hire a coach who can help you overcome your blind spots to grow as a professional and leader. Choose wisely. This person should lead you to something great instead of pulling you down because of their own limitations. Your love for someone may not qualify you for a mentor. Who would you like to be like? And why? Make a list. Those are the people who should be your mentors.
- Take feedback from others. Don’t judge if they say something unpleasant. Unpleasant conversations are difficult, but if conducted positively they help develop long-term trust. What you think of yourself is only one aspect of your personality. What others think of you is another matter. Both are equally valid. Think about what you would like to change about what others think of you. Work towards that with a plan.
Most people overestimate their skills and underestimate their talents. Moreover, they overestimate themselves and underestimate others. Self-awareness allows them to accurately assess themselves and others.
Only when you know yourself well can you lead others. It is noted that people often complain, criticize and condemn others without thinking about themselves. This is due to the lack of self-awareness.
People with self-awareness work with what they have, and from which they can excel as achievers and leaders. If you want to understand others, you must first understand yourself.
To understand yourself first, you must have self-awareness. If you want to lead others, you must know how to lead yourself.
If you want to lead yourself first, you must have self-awareness.
That’s why self-awareness is the first step to developing leadership skills. In conclusion, acquire self-awareness to excel as an extraordinary achiever and leader.