Self-awareness to Transform Your Leadership

You ever have one of those deep yawns, the kind that gets loud like a lion as you stretch your arms wide and high, lengthen your legs & wiggle your toes?

That’s how I feel I’m approaching the re-start of work in this new year.  And I don’t have a second of guilt.

I’m taking time to pause, to consider, to re-assess. 

I’m meeting my goals and gearing up for a busy season and yet…also giving myself a bit of breathing space.

For example, when I find myself questioning this or that:

• I just get up and take a walk around.
• I set it aside.
• I return to it later.

Knowing & trusting that my experience, my process and my intuition will guide me to the right next set of actions and decisions.

That’s a new behavior.

For most of my career I was a full-speed-ahead, take-charge, let’s-get-it-done-efficiently type of leader. My job, as I perceived it, was to push others to do their best in the fastest way possible.

Fortunately, I sought out coaching and stepped into the self-awareness to transform my leadership mindset.

I still maintain some of those attributes. I now encourage and motivate others to do their best. I believe in efficiencies.

Yet, I’ve also wizened, realizing that not everything is immediate.

Sometimes we need to stop pushing everything to the Urgent! Top of the List!

Instead, taking a moment to plan, to look at what we are actually aiming to accomplish and to assess whether we’re on the right path to achieve it.

So many of our co-workers, team members, clients, partners, vendors are feeling s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d. We keep trying to stay abreast of the changing and evolving world.

An executive said to me upon returning to the office after the new year that she could already feel the mounting tensions and chaotic stretch to push limits returning.  It was only the first day back in the office.

Lead yourself. Give yourself the grace of a moment to pause and reflect before you jump to the next action item.

Lead others. Engage your team, coach them and encourage an attitude that creates space for everyone to make progress towards individual and collective achievements in a balanced and practical way. 

Want more? Check out Setting Commitments and Goals as a Leader