Introspection: Becoming a Better Leader

Good leadership is one of the most crucial factors in developing a successful company. But few small business owners have taken full advantage of the power of effective leadership. One of the most common questions I get asked by small business owners is where to start to improve their leadership skills. I believe the first step to becoming a better leader begins with introspection.

The First Step: Introspection

I refer to this first step as “introspection” because it involves deep reflection about yourself and your company. This is a time to observe your own capabilities and clarify the goals one wishes to achieve through their business. Without this crucial sense of clarity, it’s difficult to lead your business, much less your team.

Introspection refers to two things:

  1. The reflective examination of one’s own mental/ emotional processes, strengths, weaknesses, and inherent leadership qualities.

  2. Decisions about the company you want to lead, including what type of company culture you’d like to cultivate and what larger vision, goals, and objectives you have in mind for your business.

Introspection About Your Self

Before you can become a successful leader, you need to begin by understanding your own mental/ emotional processes, strengths, and weaknesses so that you can better understand the leadership skills you possess and those which you lack. Some people are natural-born leaders; other people have to work on becoming an effective leader. Either way, before you can take advantage of your natural leadership abilities, you have to be honest with yourself and recognize personality traits that are working for you and against you.

To start your journey on developing excellent leadership practices, you first need to take note of different aspects of your personality, such as your emotional triggers and your natural leadership capabilities. Make efforts to understand what ways you are and are not equipped to lead. Put yourself in your team’s shoes and make notes about your interactions with them. Keep a record of the leadership challenges you face, how you handle them, the response you receive from your team, and what you might do differently in the future.

It’s important to remember that there’s no need to figure everything about your leadership style all at once. There’s also no magic formula to make you a better leader overnight. In fact, it’s better if you return to this state of introspection several times per week after facing different leadership challenges. The most important thing is to be honest with yourself. No one needs to know about your leadership victories and failures except for you. This is an opportunity for you to learn about how you tend to interact with people and how you might shape your interactions to be a better model of a leader. Once you have a clear understanding of your natural personality tendencies (and how your team responds to them), you can develop the skills needed to overcome any leadership challenges that you may face.

Becoming a Better Leader

A common myth about leadership is that some people are just “born with it.” The truth is that it is possible for anyone to be a good leader. It’s just that it comes more naturally to some people than others. Whether you’re “born with it” or not, developing excellent leadership practices still takes a lot of work. Introspection is a good place to start because it gives you a clear picture of your current role as a leader and how you will need to improve in the future.

Roshan Manjunath G.

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