I was recently reading about an exercise which I believe could be highly valuable for leaders. It asked for three statements that I would use to describe myself. Not ten or a 30 page self-diagnostic. Three statements and only three. I thought this would be easy, but the more I thought about it, the harder it became because I wanted to make sure that if I could only say three things to make others know who I was, I wanted them to be accurate and authentic. It was a great exercise that all of us who lead others should go through, because if we are to be authentic leaders, we must know ourselves. We must be completely self-aware, which many writers have advocated, from the ancient philosophers to modern day pastors and students of what makes the human being tick. Standish states that humble leaders are always self aware leaders and Goleman identifies self-awareness as a foundational competency of emotional intelligence. The list goes on and on. It’s important that leaders know themselves so that they can be authentic and empathetic when dealing with their people.
Also recently, I was working on a project that took self awareness even further. In it, I was asked a series of highly personal questions for which I was to provide extremely thorough and thoughtful answers. In some ways, being thorough was easier than only writing three statements, but it was still challenging, because the quality of the answers, as well as the quantity, was of high importance. It ended up taking me far longer to develop and edit the answers to these questions, but it was a similar process to the three-statement exercise.
The bottom line is that both of these activities forced me to think about who I truly am so that I could answer honestly. However, the greater benefit was that it helped me to think about who I wish I was now, and who I hope to become tomorrow. That’s the greatest advantage to being a self-aware leader. By looking honestly at the attitudes and behaviors we have had in the past and who we are in the present, we can identify our faults, failures, and foul-ups in a way to help us develop a plan to change. We can become who we wish we were and we can forecast our future self.
Think about who you’ve been, who you wish you were, and who you want to become. Write out three statements that authentically describe yourself. Be honest!
Great leaders are self-aware leaders. If you’re not yet, start now.
Lead well