Effective leadership relies on a multitude of essential skills and qualities, not the least of which is keen self-awareness. Being able to identify and recognize your own strengths and weaknesses in action helps you align your motives and behavior to better inspire and guide your team.
Below, Forbes Coaches Council members discuss how heightened self-awareness serves as a cornerstone for leadership excellence. Here, 15 members explore traits and abilities that are bolstered by increased self-awareness, reiterating why it’s important for leaders to be able to reflect on their own actions, habits and outlooks.
1. Adaptability
Increasing self-awareness helps leaders master adaptability. In a fast-paced world, awareness of one’s strengths and biases enables agile decision-making. This adaptability is more than flexibility; it marks resilient and versatile leadership. Self-awareness, therefore, is a strategic asset for navigating challenges effectively. – Jessica Hill Holm, Hill Holm Coaching & Consulting
2. Humility And Vulnerability
Leaders can improve how they show up and their impact on others by increasing their self-awareness. Leaders who use humility and vulnerability to understand how their behavior comes across to others demonstrate courage and can take action to improve. – Karen Tracy, Dr. Karen A Tracy, LLC
3. Purpose And Intention
Increasing self-awareness is critical for leaders at all levels. We are all often unaware how habits that led to earlier success as independent contributors or content experts don’t serve us in people management roles and might have the opposite impact. By understanding our purpose and desired impact, we can better align our actions so we can lead with greater intention. – Katie Anderson, Katie Anderson Consulting
4. Authenticity
Self-awareness serves as the foundation for authenticity in leadership. When leaders have a deep understanding of themselves, including their values, beliefs, strengths and weaknesses, they can lead in a way that aligns with their true self. When leaders are authentic, they create an environment of trust, respect and transparency, leading to better collaboration and improved overall performance. – Anna Barnhill, Barnhill Group Consulting, Inc
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5. Conflict Management Skills
Increasing levels of self-awareness can refine a leader’s skills within the area of conflict management because it helps a leader to delve into the root causes of conflicts, understand their own triggers, approach others with empathy and truly listen to the underlying concerns. All of this enables them to facilitate constructive resolutions and create a harmonious work environment. – Sheeba Varghese, Coach Sheeba
6. Communication
Increasing self-awareness helps leaders to improve their communication skills. Taking control of their own feelings and reactions will let them interact with others using good manners and avoiding unnecessary conflicts, promoting more effective collaboration and fostering positive relationships among the members of their team. – Paula Vidal Castelli, Paula Vidal Castelli Intl., LLC
7. Trust
If your people don’t trust you, they won’t follow you. And if they won’t follow your lead, you can’t achieve your mission and growth strategy. Building and nurturing trust starts with authenticity, which means showing up in deeply genuine, vulnerable and human ways. The best way to become more authentic is to become deeply self-aware of what your natural strengths and motivations are. – Claire Chandler, Talent Boost
8. Emotional Intelligence
Leaders can’t always control the waves of emotions that crash into them. But they can learn to ride them more gracefully by increasing self-awareness. Emotional intelligence starts with choosing not to be a hostage of your mood. By observing yourself closely, you can find clues on how to change your response—or at least how to manage your emotions. – Alla Adam, Alla Adam Coaching
9. Expectation Setting Ability
If the whole point of self-awareness is to reduce the gap between how good you think you are at something as a leader and how your team perceives you, then setting clear expectations is a key part of leadership that we all need to improve upon. If you think you are good, but your team doesn’t, that causes duplication of efforts, re-work and stress. Closing the gap here has a big impact. – Alex Draper, DX Learning Solutions
10. Mental Health Awareness
Leaders must be aware of their mental health and how they impact the mental health of their team members. Be open to learning unknown ways that you may be stressing others. Create communication strategies that welcome feedback so that mental health is prioritized without compromising productivity. Job stress can make it difficult to concentrate, be creative and meet deadlines. Protect minds. – Zitty Nxumalo, Deftable, LLC
11. Strong Interpersonal Relations
When leaders have a gap in relating to others, they may be unaware it exists—or if they are aware, they often don’t fully appreciate its negative impact. As a leader’s ongoing awareness of the impact of closing this gap builds, they can adjust and quickly reset their alignment with others, thus elevating their leadership to a new level and dramatically increasing their results. – Brian Houp, ReZone Coaching
12. Self-Efficacy And Locus Of Control
Consider your self-efficacy and locus of control. Self-efficacy is your belief in your own capacity and capability to achieve necessary goals. It demonstrates your confidence to control your behavior, exert an influence over your environment and stay motivated. Locus of control represents how much you believe you have control, versus others, over the outcome of the events in your life. – John Knotts, Crosscutter Enterprises
13. Systemic Analytical Ability
Increasing self-awareness can significantly help a leader master the ability to analyze issues systemically. When leaders are more self-aware, they become better equipped to recognize their own biases, assumptions and mental models that may influence their problem-solving approach. This heightened self-awareness allows them to approach complex challenges with a more open and unbiased mindset. – Thomas Lim, Thrive Consulting Pte Ltd
14. Empathy
Greater self-awareness improves empathy. When leaders are more self-aware, they develop a deeper understanding of their own emotions and can more easily recognize and empathize with the feelings and perspectives of their team. Greater empathy allows for deeper connections and greater trust. This leads to improved communication, stronger collaborations and more effective leadership overall. – Anna Yusim, MD, Yusim Psychiatry, Consulting & Executive Coaching
15. Strategic Foresight
Self-awareness not only bolsters influence and better decision-making, it also sharpens strategic foresight. Self-aware leaders have a greater sophistication and capacity to discern noise from reality. As a result, they can anticipate shifts, calibrate actions and position organizations optimally. For executives and leaders, self-awareness is the bedrock of informed foresight. – Svetlana Dimovski, PhD, ICF-PCC, NBC-HWC, Dharma Growth, LLC
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