I often get asked by leaders I work with, “how do I scale
the leadership capacity of my team?”
My answer is simple. It starts by leading and scaling
oneself. This means working on oneself and building your capacity to lead and
show up intentionally. Looking in the mirror is not easy, but essential to
scale self and then scale the organization.
A critical part of leading self is developing your
self-awareness skills. This requires us to slow down and become acutely aware
of our physical, intellectual and emotional domains and how they impact how we
are showing up and how our behavior is impacting others we are interacting
with.
I just finished a wonderful book called Triggers by David Richo. I highly recommend it.
A trigger is any word, person, event or experience that
touches off an emotional reaction (mad, glad, sad, fear or shame) in us.
The extent to which a trigger affects us is in direct
proportion to how thick or thin skinned we are. The more sensitive we are to
others’ behavior towards us or situations the greater our emotional response.
As we become more self-aware and self-assured and stronger, we notice these
triggers do not penetrate us so deeply.
We all have stimuli that triggers us. If we don’t have a clue
what our triggers are then our triggers and responses to those triggers are
leading us. Leading self requires us to first know and understand the origin of
what triggers us and why. This takes deep inward reflection. By doing this
necessary work, we can then develop self-management techniques and mindfulness
exercises to help us respond to these triggers in a healthy and productive and
intentional manner.
Send me a note to clay@executiveleadershipperformance.com to discuss how I can help you develop your self-awareness skills. Lead Well!