Recognizing Who You Are
Who are you? Seriously!
What gets you to tick?
What drives you?
What are you proficient in doing? What are some areas for you to develop and grow?
Self-conscious leaders regularly ask themselves these questions. They are curious; they seek information and embrace the answers.
Exercising the time to be self-conscious, consider one's strengths and weaknesses, and build self-understanding is not something most leaders often do. They are too busy focusing on any given day's multiple tasks and on things considered far more urgent. Refining and practicing self-awareness may not get the attention that it warrants. Yet, it is one of the several important things leaders can do to raise their own and their organization's performance.
Firm leaders must know and understand themselves. The renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow asserts clearly: Effective leaders must recognize and understand themselves. The famous psychologist Abraham Maslow claims clearly:
"Whereas the average individuals often have not the slightest idea of what they are, of what they want, of what their own opinions are, self-actualizing individuals have superior awareness of their own impulses, desires, opinions, and subjective reactions in general."
Like many things, over time, we can improve at self-awareness. Growing awareness enables us to more clearly and vitally focus on building our strengths while intentionally mitigating our weaknesses.
Strength in Vulnerability
The process of identifying one's weaknesses is also an act of distinguishing strengths. People respect a leader who understands that he or she is not perfect. They appreciate the honesty and courage it takes to admit weakness, mainly because so many leaders do not possess the strength of character required for honest self-assessment – and even rarer is the leader who articulates these weaknesses.
By exhibiting vulnerability, leaders establish trust and show they are approachable and human. The act of showing exposure works to build solidarity between leaders and staff, and honesty about our weaknesses helps us learn what we need most from those who operate beside us.
When leaders function as though they are perfect at everything, they risk dividing their staff. This lack of self-awareness can be highly harmful to a leader. Nothing threatens the effectiveness of a leader faster than failing to admit mistakes and show you have weaknesses. Emphasizing one's perfection has the implied result of revealing staff that they are not needed, that the leader can handle everything. Leaders are human: we are not perfect. We respond and do things that we shouldn't. When we fail to acknowledge this, others won't respect us or follow us as leaders.
Focus on Both Strengths and Weaknesses
While the skill and desire to recognize one's strengths and weaknesses are crucial, what we do with the knowledge is perhaps more significant. In recent years numerous authors and researchers have firmly pushed us to focus on improving strengths while not worrying much about weaknesses.
The fundamental premise of this belief is that each person's most significant potential for growth is in the areas of their greatest strengths. Thus, if one focuses too much energy on their weaknesses, they are taking time away from working on their strengths. Most people would agree that fixing deficiency is more challenging than building on strengths one already has.
While I consider the emphasis on strengths-based leadership has merits, focusing only on strengths has its limitations when our weaknesses relate to how we relate to others. Relational deficiencies can be so detrimental and fatal to the leader that is simply managing around them will not satisfy. Sometimes it is necessary to work on and improve areas of deficiency. I strongly believe that with the right motivation, weaknesses can and should be improved.
Working on and Managing Weaknesses
Once relational weaknesses are recognized, the next step is to reflect on their impact on the people you work with. Influential leaders care about the people they work with and do not want to intentionally hurt their feelings or emotionally harm them. If one's relational weaknesses negatively impact oneself and others, that should motivate them to mitigate them.
Notice I didn't say fix or eliminate the weakness. Often, in reality, the best we can hope for is to mitigate the impact of these weaknesses. The difficulty of fixing relational defects is that they are primarily a result of personality. Personalities are a tricky thing to change, and many would say even impossible to change.
Strengths and the Fearless Leader
It isn't easy to be a powerful leader without having strengths and high-level determination.
In my youth, and perhaps even still, some people perceive me as overbearing. To this, I would often reply in the following way, "I'm not overbearing, I'm just certain and you are skeptical."
This, of course, seems like an egotistic statement (particularly the "you are skeptical" part), and this response usually did little to dissipate the perception that I was anything but pretentious. I have since softened the side of me that was quickly perceived as arrogant. While arrogance is a negative trait, we do need confidence as leaders.
Leaders must deomonstrate a certain level of morale. Employees do not want to follow an unstable leader. People follow leaders that are sure of themselves; it gives them direction and certainty they advnace in the appropriate direction with the needed support. Confidence is a strength but risks shifting a weakness if it dims a leader to the realities of what may be their deficiencies.
Leaders also need to see circumstances clearly and carefully. Excessive confidence adjoining on arrogance is a steep mountain. It may lead to a reduction of listening or an over-reliance on self when others are best positioned to help. It becomes challenging to identify and work on weaknesses if one has an overabundance of confidence.