Self-Awareness: Self-Reflection

As we continue to discuss Common Sense Leadership, we will be more specifically defining the characteristics (qualities) and behaviors (actions) of common sense leaders.

While leadership can be fundamental, as in being a person of integrity and intuitively helping others succeed, there exist more concrete qualities and actions that increase our effectiveness as leaders. These particular characteristics and behaviors make us the kind of person that people respect and want to work with, and for whom people do their very best.

We’ll be taking a deep dive into the desired qualities of highly effective leaders over the next several months. We have singled out the quality of self-awareness to begin this series about Common Sense Leadership.

Self-awareness is focusing on ourselves.

• Who am I as a leader?
• As a team member?
• As a business person?
• As a corporate citizen?
• What do I contribute to help others? Could I do more? Is helping others important to me?
• What am I not doing? What am I missing?
• What example do I offer? Do I offer inspiration?
• How close am I to using my mind and capabilities to my fullest potential? Why am I not?

To start to think about how self-aware we are, let’s also ask ourselves:

• What are my values?
• What is most important to me?
• What are my strengths? Where are my areas for improvement?
• How do others receive me?

If we take the time to think about how we want to be received by others and then become self-aware of how we feel we are received following conversations, meetings, presentations, really all our interactions, our leadership effectiveness will become even greater.

In order to improve our self-awareness, this week, we will discuss practicing self-reflection.

Self-reflection is setting aside time, ideally every day, to quietly and honestly look at yourself, first as a person and then as a leader. No, this is not easy, though, as with most good habits, commitment and practice helps us get better and better.

How do you self-reflect? Because self-reflection requires dedicated time, in this fast-paced world, 30 minutes probably isn’t going to happen. Is 15 possible for you? If not, don’t fret, even five will allow a good start. Self-reflection works best if you are comfortable having a journal, or at least a notebook. It’s also ideal if you can find a quiet and peaceful place. Do the best you can with the resources you have.

Daily self-reflection is easier said than done, especially in today’s demanding business world with pressures to do more with less and with the endless flow of information via emails and social media.

In a perfect world, we would make the time for daily self-reflection, which would enable us to think about how we want to be received and observe how we are actually being received.

One friend, John Fontana, sets aside a few minutes every morning and just before bed time for his self reflection; another, Patrick Kilcarr, self-reflects when he drives home after his workday. He does not turn on his radio so that he may drive in silence.

We must each determine what works best for us and try to schedule our strategy onto our calendar. We don’t need a lot of time, as I said, even just five minutes could mean a great deal to our awareness of our actions with others and how we may be our best selves as leaders.

While this is not easy, I promise, if you make the time, it will be a difference maker. Self-reflection and self-awareness, honestly looking at ourselves, answering questions about who we are versus who we want to be as a boss and as a person and how we are being received by others, will only help us be better leaders.

Please try to do find a way to self-reflect during the week. Every day would be wonderful. If you don’t have much time, try to spend at least a few minutes. You’ll be better for it, and so will your leadership.