Having a finger on the pulse of your leadership is important not just in times of progress, growth, and success, but it can be mission critical during times of crisis. How you show up for your teams can mean the difference between a collapse of moral and productivity and a unity of trust and strength that will carry your organization through the challenge. And self-awareness is the key.
Building a habit of self-reflection will almost immediately impact your leadership growth. Understanding how you see yourself and how others see you as a leader is so vital that this practice holds the #2 spot in our 12 Leadership Lessons (and these lessons go in order).
Lesson 2: Stop. Drop. Take a Selfie.
When examining your #Selfie, you must dig deep and be honest with yourself. Who or what has influenced your leadership views? What are your gaps as a leader? What are your tendencies, positive and negative? Be able to honestly answer these questions will help build a framework for your ongoing leadership development, or evolution as I like to call it. Because becoming an epic leader isn’t a moment or the pinnacle of an achievement, but it’s a way of being, meaning that you must continue to check in on your Selfie and notice when you’re not showing up as you should.
Here is another way you can diagnose your Selfie: through critical feedback. Feedback from your direct reports will give you the outside perspective you need to gauge your leadership and how others are receiving and perceiving it. Feedback will also enable you to make adjustments based on real examples and insight.
It should be noted that taking a Selfie is not easy. Examining your unhelpful habits can be an uncomfortable task. Asking for honest feedback and hearing it can be uncomfortable. But your leadership development will get a significant boost from building this skill and making it into a regular practice. Plus, you get to build a trusting team at the same time. By promoting honesty in your organization, you will ensure your people know that it’s safe for them to be honest too.
If you haven’t thought about this before, it might be wise to take your foot off the pedal for a moment (Stop. Drop.) and consider your leadership mirror (Take A Selfie.). It will pay dividends in your leadership and your ability to achieve organizational results!
Learn more about Lesson 2 by reaching out to us or better yet, get the book and dive into all 12 lessons on your own, if that’s your jam.
#LivetoLead #YourMirror #LeadershipLessons #StopDropTakeASelfie
