Self Awareness – Do you know who you are at work?

I think the first step to building leadership and executive presence is to create self-awareness. How well do you know yourself? It’s beneficial to assess where you are. You can develop and enhance self-awareness through both internal reflection and external feedback. It’s also helpful to spend some time with a mentor and to create a baseline.

What other steps can you take to gather more information about yourself and how you behave at work? Start by practicing self-reflection. To do so, some leaders observe themselves in action, others journal or meditate. In addition, another easy technique is to take a personality assessment. Myers Briggs and the DISC personality assessments are examples of instruments that can provide insight to begin the internal self-awareness process, however, there are many available.

If you do take an assessment it’s incredibly beneficial if you can meet with your boss for a conversation about the assessment and to gain specific examples about your performance with suggestions for areas of focus.

Once you start working to create awareness of your behavior at work, you’ll learn your blind spots and which areas you need to develop in order to lead more effectively. I’d love to hear what you are learning.