The way we lead today has changed dramatically over the past 5-6 years. If you were too busy to notice these changes then Covid-19 is sure to have changed all of that and has surely forced those changes on those who had not yet adapted. Organisations more and more are moving away from hierarchical management structures with broadcast cultures to collaborative working teams with more of a learning culture.
Recruitment has seen the very nature of the relationship between organisations and individuals change, away from jobs for life towards more fluid and agile dynamics. No longer do individuals wish to be passive, turn up for work and inhabit a space where they focus on receiving knowledge to be able to do their jobs. Instead they wish to be actively involved in creating and adding value where they work, and learning happens on many different platforms both in and out of the workplace.
For organisations who wish to harness the knowledge of their people to keep them relevant and agile then adopting collaborative working groups is proving successful as a working structure for this to happen in. To lead in an environment where you are giving many in a (hopefully) diverse group a voice, solving issues and coming up with solutions as one, takes very different leadership skills from a hierarchical structure where one or two made decisions for the whole organisation.
So why is Self-Awareness key for business success in today's climate? Research suggests that when we see ourselves clearly then it has benefits such as:
· Being more confident
· Being more creative and innovative
· Build stronger relationships
· Communicate more effectively
These attributes are needed when operating within collaborative working groups but more than that we need to look at our tendencies and how others see us when being led by us as this impacts their engagement and their motivation.
Self-awareness is broken down into two broad categories, internal self-awareness where we can see our own values, aspirations, and passions fit in with our environment and our reactions and impact on others. This includes awareness of our strengths, weaknesses, feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. The second category is external self-awareness where you understand how others view you in relation to the factors above. It was shown in studies published in the Harvard Business Review (1) that people who know how others see them are more skilled at showing empathy and taking others’ perspectives. For leaders who see themselves as their employees do, their employees tend to have a better relationship with them, feel more satisfied with them, and see them as more effective in general.
Have you gone through recent months where you feel as though you are working with a team who appears foreign and not reacting or interacting in ways they used to? Is this down to them or could it be down to your leadership style during stress?...
It could still be them and not you, but how do you effectively assess this? To know yourself gives you the ability to successfully lead yourself and then others.
Do you know your tendencies that lead to actions and possibly unintended consequences? The quickest way to ascertain what your leadership voice and your tendencies is to go to https://www.giant.tv/5voices/diamond and take a short assessment which is grounded in science. It might be that you want to ascertain not just your tendencies but your teams (they can go through the assessment too). Once you go through the assessment you can book a free appointment with Rachel Montgomery at Diamond! https://calendly.com/rachel-342/leadership who can discuss your challenges and facilitate solutions so you can master the art of working collaboratively, know all your leadership voices and optimise team performance.
Ref (1), Tasha Eurich, Managing Yourself What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It), January 04, 2018 access is here: https://hbr.org/2018/01/what-self-awareness-really-is-and-how-to-cultivate-it (accessed on 16.08.20)
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