Editor's Note: This article was written by Cheryl Stokes, CEO of CNEXT, and was originally published by Fast Company.
Being an effective leader requires a multi-faceted skillset and includes areas such as strategic visioning and communication, developing talent, and empathetic listening. I believe the most effective leaders prioritize talent, people, and culture, recognizing that these assets are essential for business success. A key aspect of leadership is to develop your organization’s capability to achieve its strategic goals. This involves building people up and fostering an inclusive culture where everybody can thrive and contribute. However, in order to engage and build up others, it’s essential to understand yourself first.
Self-awareness is not only an exceptional personal trait, but it is also highly beneficial in the professional world too. The best leaders know their strengths, weaknesses, and triggers, and by knowing themselves, they can authentically motivate and inspire their teams to be their best.
To develop your self-knowledge skills, here are four questions you should ask yourself:
1. What are my greatest strengths and weaknesses?A person’s strengths and weaknesses influence each other. For example, highly creative people may need help with organization and attention to detail. Someone very detailed and process-oriented may need help brainstorming big ideas. If empathy is your strength, your weakness could be being too nice. Consider yourself strong and decisive. You might also be prone to making rash decisions.
2. Where have I had the most success as a leader?
One step you can take to gauge your success as a leader is seeking feedback from colleagues—both people you managed and people who have managed you. A genuine 360 review can help you understand areas for growth. You can also conduct a self-assessment and revisit past performance reviews for commonalities.
Do you inspire others or make them scurry to their offices? Can you give people solid critiques as needed, or do you avoid giving “bad news”? Can you give people instructions and parameters and then let them do the job, or do you give tasks and then ask for constant updates? Or worse, do you jump in and take over because they aren’t completing tasks in the same manner that you would? Consider areas where you could improve as well as areas that you are proud of and build on them.
It’s also important to recognize that strengths overdone can become weaknesses. For example, if you’re excellent with organization and processes, going “overboard” in that arena could result in highly rigid structures that stifle innovation and thwart the ability to agilely respond to client and market needs.
3. What makes me doubt myself?
Approximately 70% of the population will experience “imposter syndrome” at some point in their lives. Some doubt can actually be healthy and a sign that you are growing as a leader. It can mean pushing yourself, doing something new, and breaking through to the next level. But, if you let it, self-doubt can also be crippling.
Whether it’s small day-to-day questions or huge company decisions, being the sole decision-maker for your company can take a toll. Knowing what triggers your self-doubt means you can work with someone (a mentor, a counselor, or even a good friend or spouse) to help overcome it.
Do you feel you’re getting in “over your head” if you make a particularly bold move? Are there certain situations that cause more doubt than others? It’s important to understand what makes you feel overwhelmed, to know when to question your approach to a critical business challenge, and perhaps change it. Knowing what circumstances create anxiety can allow you to work out a plan to become more confident, helping to reduce your self-doubt in this area.
As a leader, you can and should lean on your network of mentors and your “personal board of directors” to help allay doubts and build confidence.
4. Why do I want to be a leader?
The Harvard Business Review reported that in a survey of 1.6 million people, inspiring others was rated the most important skill a leader could have. Driving for results was ranked the fifth most important.
The best leaders don’t seek out their roles for higher pay or credentials but for a genuine desire to positively impact their teams, business, and society. They desire to motivate and inspire their team members to become the best they can be. Effective and influential leaders balance their own motivations with their organization’s needs and goals to succeed.
Anyone can be a leader, but being a leader doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Being an exceptional leader requires a person to know themselves first. Knowing yourself exceptionally well is essential because everything about your leadership effectiveness follows from it. By unlocking this self-knowledge, leaders can work to motivate colleagues and team members and become even more impactful in their leadership.
Posted on February 22, 2024 by CNEXT
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