Self awareness is quite critical for excellent leadership. It is one of the indices for a strong character and sense of purpose. Self awareness gives you an understanding of who you are, and how best to relate with other people so that we lean on their strengths where you are weak and vice versa. To develop self awareness, you must engage in the following:
Practice meditation
This is also an avenue to listen to your own thoughts. Meditation helps you focus and live in the moment, bringing all your attention to the present so you can appreciate your current state. Meditation begins with channeling your focus on any object of choice, and reflecting or thinking deeply on it until you achieve moments of clarity. You can start this by deciding what to think about, and then focus on it until you achieve a breakthrough. It is very important that during meditation, all forms of distractions are taken away, so you quieten all the noise.
Journaling
Journaling would entail documenting your experiences and keeping track of your thoughts. Journaling also helps to give words to your emotions. Sometimes you do not know exactly what you are thinking and how you feel until it is documented. There are also certain experiences you might not fully comprehend until you take out time to write them down. Journaling gives you the opportunity to go through a piece of information over again.
Another important part of journaling is documenting your plans and thoughts. Your journal serves as a record sheet and some form of accountability so you can determine if your progress is according to the plans you have set out to do. Journaling helps you prioritize accordingly.
Ask for feedback
Most times, we need an objective third party to assess us and give unbiased views. To become more self aware, you might need to ask questions about how you respond to situations, what your predominant mindset is, the manner in which you communicate, character building among others. Get feedback from peers, friends, mentors, spouse etc. Ensure you issue a caveat that they must be totally sincere with you, as this exercise is instrumental to your growth and progress.
In addition, you can get feedback from your colleagues and even your boss at work on how they perceive your work pattern and culture to be. This would help you understand how best to improve and what you need to focus on.
Self awareness is always going to be required if you want to lead effectively, but it is a life long effort. You are never completely done with it, as it is a long term process. We are not very adept at self awareness and it will require work, but ultimately, it will lead to a satisfying life. You will learn how to set boundaries at ease and function at your optimal level. You will also be able to freely exercise options and choices as you may please. You will be surrounded with the most profitable relationships and know just how to add value.
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