Course 4. Foundational Leadership Principles: (Discussion #3) Lead Yourself
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Great Leadership, unsurprisingly, starts with yourself!
Practice what you preach. Lead by example. I am sure all of you heard these phrases. But why are they so iconic?
Because the journey starts with the first step and you are the person who is taking the initiative to lead -- Start a journey! So, you are the one who needs to take the first step before expecting others to do it.
To start with leading yourself, close your eyes and visualize two people: someone who inspired and encouraged you to be like them, and someone who discouraged you to be not like them.
Then, write down the good qualities of the person who inspired you as well as the qualities of the second person. You do not have to be specific with the details. Just a bulleted list.
Now, compare the list to yourself. Note the good qualities you have, the bad qualities you have, and give yourself a rating on a scale of 1-10. What we just did is identified your strengths and weaknesses and what you need in order to lead yourself. This allows you to create self-awareness.
Self-awareness is key to leading yourself in the right direction. But, leading yourself is not easy. Just being self-aware isn't enough. It's igniting the spark but not enough to catch the fire. To catch the fire, you need to be persistent with your practice, which is regular reflection. Be consistent with monitoring your efforts and holding yourself accountable.
You can't effectively lead others until you know how to lead yourself. That happens through Self-Observant Leadership: when you deeply understand your identity, compare it to your reputation (how others experience you) and then make meaning of the observations, and choose to adapt.
Exercise:
1. Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve?
2. Please reply to 3 of your peers in this thread!
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Exercise:
1. Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve?
-I will work more on not being afraid to address something at the first red flag, I've seen that be the first issue of concern with the individual I don't want to mirror as a Leader. I can improve this by keeping compassion and grace within my Leadership style so that when anything must be improved or addressed before it can progress into a bigger issue, my team is confident that I'm approaching them from a place of support and concern.
@SirenOfSerenity
You are really good, Siren. I've always enjoyed working with you and hope that we can both help each other overcome our shortcomings.
@KimByeongIn Thank you! And same to you, you're an incredible Leader already 💙 Especially your dedication to the PAT team
@Heather225
I'm mostly low on the patience part. I need to be able to stay cool all throughout the arguments or conflict and not implement my own ideology into everything.
@KimByeongIn
To improve, I will practice my patience skills and try to be as accommodating as possible.
@Heather225 Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve?
An area where I scored low would be confidence and being outgoing/extroverted. Being an introvert makes me less confident in myself and I am not expressive. It makes me nervous and I cannot put my point across in a better way. That is one thing I really want to work on, be more outgoing and expressive in my thoughts, actions and words.
One thing I would like to do/did to improve myself would definitely be cups. Speaking to everyone, giving my inputs is something I did coming here. It was my first step coming out of my comfort zone. Other ways I can improve is to take part in real life discussions, talk to people, attend sessions, give public speeches and try and gain my confidence. I hope my college helps me to change and be a better version of myself
@yourbuddy30 confidence, I will cheer you on that! <3 you can do it, Buddy! <3
@yourbuddy30 confidence is important!! you got this <3
@Heather225
1. Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve?
The area I am lacking is Time Management (Score - 8 = poor) which I am very well aware of and this is already a part of my self improvement plan.
To improve this, I will be arranging my calendar which I will be strict on, time for personal life, and time for work, this way, I will have a great separation between the two and can focus better, I believe time management is key in such important roles not only in personal life but also as a leader.
@iCareUK time management, let's go for it! <3
1. Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve?
I have very strong opinions.
No, I won't insist it upon other people and no, I won't lord it over everybody. I won't even discuss it unless someone asks.
I am very respectful of other people's opinions and can listen to almost any discussion without fighting or arguing with anybody. However, it doesn't mean you can change my mind. It rarely happens.
I would never compromise my ideals and principles, more importantly, my opinions because it took decades of a journey not just of the mind and heart, but also the soul.
I need to work on this. I can do it by exposing myself to more people who have opinions that are on a totally different side of the spectrum from mine... [edited for content] is key and being open to considering other people's opinions as truth, too.
And no matter how confident I am in my skills, I still am not the best at everything and I don't know everything.
[edited for unsupportive content MistMagic 12/5/2022]
@CosmicMiracle it is definitely important to be open to other people's opinions!
@Heather225
Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve?
An area that I could improve on is adaptability to change. One thing I could do to improve is remind myself of the positive outcomes to that adaptation.
@Heather225
1. Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve?
Self-management skills is my low self awareness check in as I sometimes tend to lose track with personal and professional life due to lots of packed tasks with disorganize reminders. 1 thing I improved in is becoming open minded to be comfortable with problem solving always to know how to gather the right people, resources, budget and knowledge from past experiences.
2. Please reply to 3 of your peers in this thread!
@Harsvin @KimByeongIn @ASilentObserver
@iStarlight
I love your answer
@Heather225
Hello everyone,
#1: I would have to say I score low on my self awareness during arguments. It is really hard to be se;f aware during arguments or any high pressured situation. One thing I can do to help myself is just to take a breath in the heat of the monument.