Self-Development as a Leader: Building Self-Awareness

This article explores the concept of self-awareness in leadership and its importance in personal and professional growth. It discusses the role of self-awareness in emotional intelligence and how to develop it using strengths and reflective practices. The article emphasizes the benefits of self-awareness for effective leadership.

a) Explore and reflect on self- development as a leader to build self-awareness
Self awareness has been the most important attributes in a leader over the years, but, even
today, the concept is not well utilized or understood by the leaders themselves. Self
awareness is also known to be one of the most important components of emotional
intelligence. It helps a person to improve on their judging skills and diagnose the possibilities
of personal growth and professional advancement.
By developing on the strengths featured in the Gallup Strengths Finder, it becomes easier for
me to grow and develop and build the concept of self awareness. One of the strengths being
Strategic Thinker, it helps me to see the issues from a helicopter point of view. Since I know
that I have the capability of strategic thinking, I can think and find out the best possible way
to benefit the organization and the team members (Miller, 2016). The sense of responsibility
shall guide me in taking the honest and the right approach to things and also realize my own
behaviour and modulate them for the benefit of self growth and for the others around me. I
am aware and know how to take responsibility for my own behaviour and actions. Along with
the “Includer” theme has a unique capability of accepting others in every possible way. Being
such a leader, I have a natural inclination of building wonderful teams by bringing different
people with different skill sets together (Goleman & Lippincott, 2017). Similarly,
communication and staying connected also makes me approachable and reliable in all
aspects.
Thus, as a leader I am aware of my strengths and can develop emotional self awareness by
being mindful of my behaviour and notions, and this paves the path to being an effective
leader.
b) Demonstrate the technique of reflective and reflexive practice as a means of continuous
learning and self-development
Reflection is one of the best practices that I can approach for self development and
continuous learning in the process. Reflective thinking does not affect only the internal
processes but also my critical thinking ability to take a better informed decision. When I am

well informed about my own thinking, then I can take logical approaches while working with
others in the team. I, as a reflective leader, identify learning as a life long procedure and
believe that I can learn something new about myself as well as others each and every day. As
a reflective thinker, I move myself away from the concerned issue and use a third person
perspective to analyze the situation. This in turn helps me to evaluate the situation from a
practical point of view and keeps me away from bias (Lundgren & Poell, 2016).
Daily self reflection, however, requires me to be radically honest about myself. Reflexive
practice also improves my performance as a leader by making me take decisions fast, but
however, according to experts, we, the practitioners of reflexive thinking rely more on our
personal experience rather than new thoughts and learnings. This process stagnates my
effectiveness as a leader since I tend to develop a tendency to make changes on the go and is
very effective in urgent or regular scenarios. However, when the situations change, I can be
at a loss, since I work mainly based on my prior experience (Cunha, Pacheco, Castanheira, &
Rego, 2015).
Thus, from the argument above, it is deduced that reflective thinking helps me develop
myself on an ongoing basis and also nurture my thirst for learning through the various
experiences and afterthoughts. Scientifically, reflective thinking is beneficial for the
organization as well me as a leader.
References
Cunha, M. P., Pacheco, M., Castanheira, F., & Rego, A. (2015). Reflexive work and the
duality of self-leadership. Leadership , 472- 495.
Goleman, D., & Lippincott, M. (2017, September 8). Without Emotional Intelligence,
Mindfulness Doesn’t Work. Harvard Business Review .
Lundgren, H., & Poell, R. F. (2016). On Critical Reflection: A Review of Mezirow’s Theory
and Its Operationalization. Human Resource Development Review , 3-28.
Miller, B. (2016, December 6). Leading with Self-Awareness: Introducing the Strategic
Thinking Domain . Retrieved April 4, 2019, from 34 Strong: https://34strong.com/leading-
with-self-awareness-introducing-the-strategic-thinking-domain-week-27/