Leaders are faced with a myriad of challenges, both from juggling many projects and dealing with the many different personality traits of their people.  In order to be open and alert to devising winning solutions to problems and blockages, there is one enduring practice which sorts out the great from the good.  This week’s article looks at this practice and how leaders apply it in the workplace. 

There is no one formula to being a successful leader.  Many would argue that great leadership is situational, and what are seen as great leadership traits for one situation, may not be so great for another.  This is very true for example, where you may have an immature team which isn’t quite yet developed, a leader may in the initial stages need to be much more directional than they perhaps would otherwise be.  The Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory is quite clear on the stages involved in leading teams with different maturity levels.

Often leadership is classed as being significant, when the leadership style is values based.  The leader demonstrates to employees and customers, just who they are dealing with.  While I think many would agree that openness, honesty, humility, inclusivity for example may be universal values; they are not always actually at the top of everyone’s list.    So a commercially savvy entrepreneur who cuts corners and makes hard decisions easily, to get where they need to be, can be applauded by some and condemned by others.

The crucial practice all leaders can,  and should be good at though,  is self-awareness.  It is one thing making a decision to axe the jobs of 100 people, and having an attitude of “well that’s just business”.  It is miles away from the leader who agonises over the need to make such a decision, conscious and aware of the impact it is going to have on the livelihood of all of those people.

That’s not to say that a self-aware leader doesn’t make those decisions, but they do so with care, kindness and understanding, as well as firmly.  They will have no doubt that such a decision is a last but necessary  resort.  They also support, listen and respect the fears, anxieties and issues of the people who are affected.

We all have our blind spots, I would challenge anyone who believes they haven’t.  Although making the decision to lead a life of awareness can be a challenging one, it is also can be extremely revealing and rewarding.

In my experience, leaders who are willing to continually learn and develop their own self-awareness may not be perfect, or paragons of virtue.  What they do though is different from leaders who don’t practice self awareness, in that they learn from their mistakes, and then do something differently next time.  They take time out to evaluate how they are doing, and how they impact others.  Most importantly they are able to observe themselves objectively in order to self-appraise.

In the process of leading a team or an organisation, they willingly:

• Take feedback from their people and find out what is going wrong as well as what is going right.
• Are prepared to learn from others and they admire qualities about other people who can teach them something.
• Question their own mind sets, and are always open to learn how to be more authentically positive and to achieve great outcomes for themselves and others.
• Understand their own power to affect the intentions, mind-sets and beliefs of others and they use that power wisely and with integrity.
• Understand that leading a team is not a single-minded activity, but one where they must be open to understanding others, so as to get them on-board and engaged in what they are trying to achieve.
• Work out exactly who they want to be working with them and for them.  They have a good insight into themselves and how they tick and therefore have the same understanding of others
• Commit to continuous development of their business and people.  They understand that life is a learning experience, and it’s not just about skills and knowledge, but also about self- understanding.  Not just for themselves, but for others too.

In my latest free EBook “The Magic of Seven” you can discover the 7 x 7 Ways, Great Leaders Create Great teams.  For more information about this and Leadership Development, visit our website www.peoplediscovery.co.uk

Christina has managed people for twenty seven years and led hugely successful teams. She has worked with people at all levels in various organisations to help them achieve their potential, and she has been actively involved in the learning and development field in a number of different roles.