Self-Awareness: The Key To Effective Leadership

Self-Awareness: The Key To Effective Leadership

We’ve all experienced a leader who wasn’t self-aware. When a leader is self-aware, they have the ability to focus on themselves and see how their own actions, thought, and emotions do or do not align with their internal standards.

We see this when a leader has set a corporate mantra of integrity, positivity, and appreciation, but his actions do not align. This leader berates his employees, doesn’t see anything good happening, and cooks the books.

Yeah, he’s not self-aware.

Yet, self-awareness is key to effective leadership. Without self-awareness, your employees will think you’re inept and not worth following.

Developing Self-Awareness

To become an effective leader, you have to develop self-awareness. Thankfully, this is a skill that can be taught and developed.

Watch For Cracks

We all know it’s the little things that matter. It’s the little things that tell us whether or not we’re living and leading with integrity.

Far too often, it is easy to miss the signs of faulty integrity. Why? Because the small things we do will tell us whether or not we have integrity.

We all want to live with integrity. Not all of us do.

So, what do we need to do to ensure we’re living lives of integrity?

Watch For Cracks

We have to watch for cracks…

Think about the foundation of a house. A house with a solid foundation will have a smooth foundation. The cement that was laid will be void of any cracks.

Our lives should be the same. We need to build a solid foundation of integrity.

How To Become A More Compassionate Leader

Compassionate leaders are leaders who change the culture of the organizations they work in. When you have leaders who actually care about the people they lead, the employees notice.

A job goes from being just a job to something different. The job could become a mission. It may become a mission field. Or it may even become a lifelong experience.

With so many hard-nosed, angry, and frustrated leaders, we don’t see as many compassionate leaders as we should. Instead, we put up with cranky, tense leaders who make the working environment unpleasant.

You can change this. You just have to work on becoming a compassionate leader.

How To Become A More Compassionate Leader

As you work toward becoming a more compassionate leader, I want you to keep the following thoughts and ideas in mind. These actions will help you become what you want to be: a more caring leader.

Live A Model Life

It seems that there’s a model for everything. A model home, toy models, and more.

But why do we have models? It’s simple. A model is an example of something that is or could be.

This could be a model of a Vought F4U-1A from World War 2. It could be the luxury home you’ve been drooling over. Or it could be a, drumroll please, model life.

Model airplane sitting on a table

Photo by Matias Luge on Unsplash

Live A Model Life

I want you to think about the model life. What does this look like to you?

A model life could include:

  • Regularly helping others at the local church
  • Encouraging the people on your team
  • Spending copious amounts of time with your family
  • Enjoying a backpacking trip through the Appalachian Trail
  • Speaking kindly to strangers
  • Giving your tithes and offerings to your church

Finding Rest

Many of you can relate to what I’m going to share today. You know you need to find rest but you don’t. Neither do I. I can struggle to find time to rest.

I think of my regular schedule. It’s a full day in the office, only to go on a run in the evenings. Or maybe it’s helping to lead the youth group on Wednesday nights. Then the weekend comes. It’s time to rest!

Oh, no… It’s not.

The weekend is full of trying to do various activities. There’s the Saturday run. Then a regular trip out of town. Then maybe a youth group event, family outing, or something else. Sunday, there’s church, perhaps a church event, and more.

My week is crammed full of activities. It’s kind of scary when I stop to think about it.