Self-Awareness and Leadership Importance of Knowing Yourself in Leadership, Essay Example

Knowledge of one’s self plays a crucial role in the life of an individual. It defines how an individual handles different issues in life which determines things that are related to success and failure in the endeavors of an individual. There are so many things in the life that are conditioned by the level of knowledge that one has about him or herself. When individual knows who they are and what they want in life, then how they are going to achieve them become very clear. For so long, self-awareness has been associated with performance and achievement in what an individual undertakes. It has also been associated with success and failure in leadership. Today, self-awareness is regarded as the beginning of effective leadership (Bennis 1994 p.53). Before an individual is able to handle any group dealings, they should be aware of themselves in several aspects.

In leadership, self-awareness is not only defined in relation to what an individual knows about their strengths and weaknesses but also to what an individual knows about their character and how it influences the way they behave in different settings. With such knowledge about themselves, an individual will always be able to conduct themselves appropriately in the different situations that they find themselves. Contextual behavior is always important to success in leadership (Bennis & Goldsmith 2003 p. 81). How an individual conducts themselves in any group is heavily influenced by what they know about themselves.

Self-awareness has diverse implication in leadership which can generally be classified as negative or positive. Of the greatest influence of self-awareness on leadership are its positive implications. As already mentioned, self-awareness plays a key role in leadership of an individual. Self-awareness enables a leader to choose the appropriate behavior that they are to employ when in different group settings. Choosing the appropriate behavior means that a leader should know his or her behavior, how it affects different types of groups that the leader comes in contact with in the society. Behavior modification solely emanate from the knowledge that a leader has about their personality.

Bennis (1994 p. 53) points out that, individuals who have great self-awareness tend to be better performers in their workplaces. This has been associated with such individuals being able to selectively apply behavior in the different situations that they are faced with. Such knowledge enables a leader to effectively apply the different aspects of their behavior that they know to have strengths while at the same time avoiding those aspects of their behavior that they are aware to have weaknesses when handling different issues in their work places. For a leader, knowing ones strengths and weaknesses can be said to have a positive impact on their leadership. Heavy utilization of strengths while minimizing their weaknesses increases the chances of success that a leader can have in influencing the behavior and attitude of the people that a leader associates with or leads.

Many are the times that success is attributed to individuals who are known to have great personality. These are individuals known to have a positive impact on the people that they associate with. It is also associated with a leader being aware of the needs of those under them. The validity of the above statement often comes under sharp focus as it very difficult for a single individual to understand the problems or the needs of the people that one leads. However, achieving success in corporate or any other type of leadership does not depend on a leader understanding and respecting the needs of those under them but rather depends on the leader being able to respect the needs of their juniors not at the expense of their personal beliefs and values. Self-awareness enables a leader to be in a position to integrate their beliefs in what they do while at the same time respecting the beliefs of those they are with.

It should be noted that pleasant personalities of effective leaders do not mean that they care about all the wishes and needs of all those under them. One of the causes of failure in leadership is by leaders trying so hard to respect the needs of those under them to extend that their personal beliefs are jeopardized. Leaders who practice such kind of leadership will always be termed to have no focus as they will keep on shifting direction as they try to meet the wishes of the majority. Their leadership principles are always determined by the wishes of those he thinks matter in the society. Such kind of leaders are said to lack principle and their leadership always is known to have no clear direction. The ability of a leader to integrate their personality, in terms of beliefs, in their leadership emanates from their knowledge of the importance of their personal principles in defining their leadership. Self-awareness therefore defines the type of leadership of a leader.

Another clear explanation of the importance of self-awareness in leadership is striving to improve the areas that one knows that they lack abilities or skills. Individuals that are aware of themselves will always try to improve on their existing pool of skills and abilities. This explains why some people seek advice from others. Individuals who are aware of their inadequacies will always try to improve on what they think they need to know more. This is in sharp contrast with those who are unaware of their skills and abilities. When an individual knows what they can or cannot do, appropriate measures are always sought thus increasing their chances of success in their leadership.

Although seeking help from fellow leaders may be seen to influence the leadership style of a leader, leaders with great sense of self-awareness are always able to find ways that they can maintain the authenticity of their leadership. This means that they still uphold the areas that they are aware of as the positive tenets in their leadership while discarding those that they are sure to be of no value to their leadership. Individuals that are not self aware will only copy what they are advised to do.

Self-awareness is always associated with the actions of an individual. Individuals who are aware of their personality and their different effects will be able to control themselves to suit the different situations that they are in. For a leader, knowing oneself is important as it helps the leader be aware of the areas that they need to improve on based on their personal judgment rather than on what others think that they should improve on. It also helps leaders to conduct themselves in ways that they think it is ideal rather than on what others think they should be. Effective leadership largely depends on the ability of an individual to guide and influence the behavior of others. Such belief should always be based on what you think as an individual to be the ideal way rather than what others think it should be. Personal behavior heavily influences leadership. Therefore for there to be effective leadership, a leader should be able to express their individuality in their leadership styles based on what they think of themselves and not what others think of who they are as a leader.

Self-awareness adds personality to leadership unlike in cases where individuals are unaware of whom they are and therefore copy whatever is stereotyped as the form of effective leadership. In cases where leadership styles are copied, problems are always bound to arise as a leader is not sure of the appropriate steps to be taken should perceived or potential ramifications of the actions that are being undertaken arise. Whenever a leader involves their individuality in their leadership process, they are capable of developing solutions of the problems that arise in the course of their leadership. Personalized leadership that heavily utilizes the strengths of a leader is the ideal way that leadership should be. This is because solutions to problems are always developed by the leader based on different contexts. Such cases always help in avoiding blanket application of solutions to problems which in many cases tend not to work (National Chiropractic Alliance, 2009).

There have been debates on whether leaders are born or developed. Today, it is widely accepted that leaders are developed rather born.  People who grow as leaders utilize their knowledge of their personality and others on how they can use them to influence people to follow them. For this to happen, they should be able to effectively apply selective application of the positive aspects in their behavior that can only be known through thorough knowledge of one’s self. This can be achieved through them being able to bring out what is unique in them that can qualify them to be effective leaders for example being able to show empathy when it is necessary and be strong when situations demand. This is in sharp contrast to the always wide held belief that leaders should always be able to be strong irrespective of the situations that they are in.

Although self-awareness has a lot advantages to leadership, it also has some negative implications. For example, individuals occupying leadership positions who are extremely aware of their inadequacies, especially behavioral based inadequacies may develop low self esteem. Such situations may lead to destructive leadership rather than developmental. There are cases where leaders who are highly aware of their inadequacies in life lead to the failure of the institutions that they lead. One of the major negative impacts of extensive self-awareness on leaders is that it may increase pride in them especially when they think that they have the capability of influencing their subjects. Extensive use of their abilities may lead to negative usage as the leaders may be aware of their convincing power. Other disadvantages self-awareness is in cases where leaders know of their negative aspects or their inabilities. Such cases may always lead to the leaders having low belief in their abilities and therefore may affect their leadership style.

In conclusion, though there may be negative implications of self-awareness in leadership, from the discussion above, it is evident that self-awareness plays a major positive role in leadership. Self-awareness therefore can be said to be advantageous to leadership. Anyone aspiring to be a leader, and effective leader in that, should be able to identify their positive attributes that can be applied to their expected leadership as a step towards their life goals. Self-awareness therefore should be emphasized in the search of effective leaders in the society.

References

Bennis, W.G. (1994). On Becoming a Leader (2^nd ed). Michigan. Persus Books

Bennis, W.G. & Goldsmith, J. (2003). Learning to lead: a workbook on becoming a leader (3^rd ed).New York. Basic Books

Dr. Partrict Gentempo (2009). Self esteem: Key to proper leadership. National Chiropractic Alliance Retrieved on November 30, 2009, from http://www.worldchiropracticalliance.org/tcj/1998/jan/jan1998gentempo.htm