This week, I’m going to play with the notion of Self-knowledge as a critical component of good leadership. Some might call this navel-gazing. Some might be of the opinion that they know themselves well enough, having lived in their own skins for however long. But to me, you can’t hope to be a good leader unless you are fully aware of your impact on the people and environment around you.
In other words, before even considering leadership style or the skills required to be a good leader, you need to first establish and confirm for yourself, who you are and what you have to offer as a human being.
So, how well do you know yourself? When was the last time you really examined your thoughts, motives, and emotions to the extent that you know how you influence what goes on around you?
Questions, Questions, Questions…and the answers are not always staring us in the face but, there are numerous ways to get some insight into how we are… as others see us. Some are more useful than others
To my mind, there are two pieces of work in particular that have proven invaluable in the area of self-assessment. Click on the links to learn more about them.
Emotional Intelligence and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator
On Wednesday, we’ll explore the concept of Emotional Intelligence and I’ll point you in the direction of a pretty good self assessment web-site to check out.
In the meantime, I leave you today with the thought that receiving feedback about yourself, (no matter how potentially useful it might be), is only useful if you choose to believe it… and then do something with it.
With that in mind, here’s Something to read: Turning Feedback into Change Joe Folkman, Ph.D.
Oh, and just for fun check out The Who. They don’t seem to know themselves.
You're Not the Boss of Me 