Increase Your Self-Awareness as a Virtual Leader : Part Four January 18, 2022 by Belinda EganThis is part four of a five-part series called, How To Be A Virtual Standout Leader. So far, this series has covered psychological safety, preventing burnout in a virtual setting, and refreshing your team’s focus on your organization’s vision. This article, part four, is solely about you, the leader. As an Executive Leadership Coach with a focus on Generative Leadership, my biggest job when working with organizations and their leaders is to ensure that all of those in a leadership position know themselves really, really well. I’ve spoken many times about how important it is for leaders to do a “deep dive” into their motivations, life experiences, belief systems, and values in order to be a courageous leader – the type of leader the workforce, needs more than ever in 2022. Simply put – if a leader doesn’t know themselves inside and out, they cannot lead effectively. How does a leader get to know themselves? Failing lots and often Exploring their personal history in therapy Being acutely aware of their motivations and values When leaders know themselves well, they are more kind, gentle, and forgiving of themselves – and extend the same to everyone they interact with. Part Four: Increase Your Self-Awareness as a Virtual Leader Here are three ways you can foster and increase your self-awareness as a leader to ensure you are showing up for your team members in an impactful way. Fail lots (and often!) A leader that has experienced a great deal of personal and professional failure has become a great student of life and a humbled teacher. Failure shows you how to do things a different way. It teaches you resilience. It shows you the darkest parts of yourself and how to overcome them. A leader with a strong Generative Leadership style has been humbled by failure but has learned ways to overcome it as well. Because of this, a leader with failure under their belt sees the value in failing and encourages team members to make mistakes in order to learn from them. They understand that failure is an essential part of any process and demonstrate to their team the value of resilience instead of a fear of being “wrong.” Explore your personal history and seek to understand yourself through therapy The circumstances and events of our lives don’t passively happen to us – they change us in big and small ways. Often, we hold onto hurt, resentment, feelings of rejection, and the effects of trauma all through our lives without realizing that these things affect how we interact with the world around us. Therapy is an important resource for a leader who wants to positively impact the lives and self-esteem of their team members. Exploring your personal history in therapy shows you patterns of behaviors and beliefs developed over a lifetime that may not actually be helpful to you as an adult. A therapist can also help you understand how you react to stress, novel situations, and conflict. This is extremely helpful to know as a leader, as you’ll be able to predict your behavior and curb unhelpful reactions to challenging situations. Stay acutely aware of your motivations and values Why did you want to be a leader in the first place? Does that “Why” still seem important to you? Your motivations for being in a leadership role will affect how you lead. If you’re motivated to be an agent of positive change, you’ll always be seeking opportunities to do the right thing. Understanding your value system is a huge part of being a good leader. The things that are most important to you will be what you focus on. If you focus on your people instead of your bottom line, you’ll lead with compassion. A highly self-aware leader knows how they will react during times of stress and conflict. They understand that each person they lead has their own unique human experience. Because they know themselves and accept themselves, they can “make room” emotionally to understand their team members. In your virtual leadership, I’m sure you’ve discovered by now that your “emotional resources” are drained more quickly, as you have to take extra measures to connect and lead from behind a screen. However, if you know yourself well, you’ll be able to quickly identify when you’re feeling drained and know how to fix it so you can get back to leading courageously. Tune in next time for the final chapter in the Virtual Leadership Series: How to Empower Your Team Members to Make Their Own Decisions in a Virtual Setting. Belinda Egan PS. Sign up for my newsletter for more thought leadership strategies, research, and ongoing support for you and your team. Subscribe!