Self-Awareness: The Basic Competency

In our ever-increasing competitive business climate, organizations continue to seek any advantage that will give them edge on their competition. Many have found that one solution is to improve their leadership culture. To do that you must begin with self-awareness training. You see, organizational culture is nothing more than how people work together for a common purpose. And, if individual leaders’ beliefs and values do not match organizational core values, then negativity and disruption will reign.

As the saying goes, and it’s true, “leadership is everything”, so it follows that leadership behaviour is the singular most important predictor to organizational performance. And it’s not so much what the leader says but how the leader behaves that matters most regarding individual and organizational performance. While this may seem a vague or daunting task, there are crucial steps you can take to ensure that you have charted a course for success.

There are great consultant firms out there to help, but maybe most important is introducing the skill of ‘Positive Presence’ to your leaders and your workforce. ‘Positive Presence’ is a new way of thinking and being – it is a specific kind of mindset that leads to productive and strength-giving workplace behaviour. Science has proven that a positive and energized mindset is necessary for individuals to work collaboratively.

Here’s something to try: Think about all the people who have had leadership responsibility and authority over you. Who inspired, believed, and encouraged you? Did these leaders see the positive qualities in you and support and grow those qualities? Did these leaders’ behaviour match their words? Now think about the people whose behaviours had a negative impact on you and your leadership development. Did these leaders do the ‘corporate talk’ and then display behaviours that contradicted their words? Or even worse, were their words and actions both so negative that they destroyed motivation and morale? This simple exercise emphasizes the impact that people in leadership positions have and the importance of having self-awareness.

Effective leaders are kind, considerate, honest, respectful, and trustworthy, among many other inspiring traits, all of which are positive in nature. Sadly, far too many leaders are the exact opposite, and they are unaware of how they come across to their peers and subordinates. As a result, they do not realize that their negative behaviour contributes to lack of trust, loss of credibility, and the high cost of poor performance and low productivity. Worse, some leaders intentionally behave badly and are protective of those negative traits, thinking they cause no harm.

By learning about the self, leaders become comfortable with their internal values, beliefs, preferences, thought processes, and emotions. They become self-managers, careful about how they present themselves and respond to the outside world. A self-aware leader knows the importance of creating a positive and energized mindset and of helping others to do the same. A self-aware leader then is in a better position to collaborate and connect with others, unlike a leader who is unaware of her/his true self. At some point in their journey a self-aware leader acquires the skill of Positive Presence and the behaviour competencies of Positive Presence … but self-awareness is where it starts.