Leadership Principle 1: Know Yourself
I work with very smart leaders. Many are at the top of their organization. They are great at getting business results. Most are still refining how to get even better results through those that work with them.
And yet only a handful really know themselves and have a high level of self awareness.
Leadership Principle One is Know Yourself. You must connect with yourself on the fundamentals before you can do that with others effectively. You must be a student of yourself to be an effective leader. And if you hope to get better results through those that you work with, you need to nurture your emotional intelligence and become an emotionally intelligent leader.
Know yourself, re-connect with yourself by reflecting on and answering these simple self assessment questions:
-What ten characteristics/qualities distinguish you, make you stand out?
-What are your top five values and how do those show up in your life? How do your top values influence what you do and how you do it?
-How emotionally intelligent are you? Daniel Goleman defines Emotional Intelligence as: …the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships. See www.haygroup.com/tl/EI/Quiz.aspx for a mini EI self assessment.
When you have a clearer understanding of yourself, use that information to help you make better future choices and decisions. That may include reviewing past decisions and doing a post mortem, asking a mentor for his/her input and engaging in leadership coaching.
Stay tuned for more on knowing yourself.
Tags: business results, Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence, leaders, self-assessment, self-awareness
June 26th, 2009 at 12:51 am
This is a great article. Only by knowing yourself can you be able to give more of yourself to others, in your business and in your personal life. Remember that success is not by chance, it’s by CHOICE. You have to make an effort before you can experience success.