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!
After fulfilling the requirements of this post, please check out the next post here! You must take part in the brainstorming/activities given in all of these posts to successfully complete the program.
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1. Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve?
‐ Prioritizing skills. I often get caught up in Q1 tasks - urgent but not important. And since these are often easy ones to do, I feel like I've done a lot of work and keep playing myself on loop with the same task flow. I will practice meditation and mindfulness to be more aware of my Q2 tasks and prioritize not urgent but important tasks. I'm already working on it since few months.
@peacefulWarrior10
That's a great answer! You reminded that I spend a lot of time on Q1 tasks too and I need to work on shifting towards Q2.
@Grace8402
Thanks. Yes most people get caught up in the Q1. I'm sure with conscious efforts we can both improve this. All the best <3
@peacefulWarrior10
Prioritizing tasks is something that I really have to work on too! thank you for sharing this 
@peacefulWarrior10
Thats quite an articulation.
@peacefulWarrior10
glad that you have been working on prioritizing, it is such a very useful skill to have. wonderful job, keep up the awesome work!
@peacefulWarrior10 Loved your answer, and all the best on your journey :)
@peacefulWarrior10 You're right, this is so important :)
Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve? Managing emotions, I can definitely work on learning patience and thinking before I act or say something in anger, I will try to improve this by taking deep breaths before reacting
@Dinoprincess12
Great response! Managing emotions is a great skill that we all have to work on in some or the other way. Best of luck for your journey!
@Dinoprincess12
I can get the same way! Finding solutions for managing emotions is super important, but can also be super hard!
@Dinoprincess12 Great answer, emotions can be indeed challenging to manage but I'm sure you'll do great over practice!
@Heather225
Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve?
I need to improve on being assertive.
I could do this by creating boundaries and keeping in mind what is my goal.
sounds a good plan! all the best, @Grace8402
One area where I scored low on my self-awareness check-in
One area where I scored low is Confidence. I can be very timid and very unsure of myself sometimes. It is something I really need to work on.
One thing I will do to improve
To improve, I think I can try to trust myself and my abilities more.
@NorahListens
That's awesome Norah! I'm sure you have so many awesome traits!
@NorahListens I think we all need our confidence boosted. I find for myself I can do little things and gain confidence in little steps. Thanks for sharing and caring.
Confidence can sometimes be hard, irs not an easy skill to have that’s for sure. Believe in yourself! @NorahListens
@NorahListens
it's okay to be unsure of yourself sometimes, glad that you are able to work on your confidence. keep up the awesome work!
1. Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve?
I'm not totally sure I understand the question haha. I know that something I really really need to work on is decision making! I always try and take all the options into consideration, and then end up making a bigger problem for my self. I think creating a chart/list of some kind will help me be able to make decisions!
@cocoakrispies121 Oooh, I love charts and lists. I assure you it's a great way to learn decision-making and organizing. Good luck ~
Decision making can be so challenging haha totally relate! I like your way of trying to improve this though! @cocoakrispies121
@cocoakrispies121
Enjoyed reading your take on the question
@Heather225
I would place myself around 7/10. I believe that self-awareness is connected to acceptance and normal levels of self-esteem in order to be objective and able to set a goal to develop. My self-esteem is kind of low sometimes and when there are many problems at the same time, I find it challenging to categorize and manage them, so I get through small periods of grief. It’s important to me to work on my confidence to trust my skills and appreciate myself more about the things that I achieve. In this way I will be able to accept the problem and start solving it faster and more affectively. Of course, as long as we live, we learn so constantly practicing is crucial to become our best selves, there's always room for growth and this can be a motive for me.
@SofiaT2000
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic, your post was really insightful and interesting to read.
@SofiaT2000 This was a great answer :)
@Heather225
1. Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve?
One thing a person really close to me in my life has and I really view as what I don’t want in myself is being bossy trying to control others’ life, and to make them feel bad for not meeting what I have expected from them while it’s their own life, their choices, and I’m not really a bossy personality I think I’m not quite like that close person
But I want to apply the no advice rule of cups to every conversation in which I want the person I talk to feel heard
@Listeningsarinn That was well said. I do want people to feel heard too.
@Heather225
Indepedent and confidence are things that can be quite tricky for me.
In order to imrpove I think I could put myself in situations where I would have to be indepedent and confident, get out of my comfort zone.
@queenviebsonly getting out of the comfort zone can be challenging, kudos for you willing to do that. all the best!
@queenviebsonly
That is a great idea to strengthen this skill. You got this! :-)
Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve?
I have to improve how I set my boundaries. I have a hard time saying no so do overwhelm myself at times. And in order to that, I think I am going to first learn that saying no is okay.
@anotherfrenchtoastmafiaa
Thanks for your post. Learning to say no is definitely a challenge!
Exercise:
1. Share one area where you scored low on your self-awareness check-in and one thing you will do to improve? I tend to push my ideas or point of view so that can cause conflict.
I will try to improve by getting other people's ideas and finding out what they are willing to accept.
2. Please reply to 3 of your peers in this thread!
After fulfilling the requirements of this post, please check out the next post here! You must take part in the brainstorming/activities given in all of these posts to successfully complete the program.
@soulsings listening to others and trying to understand their point-of-view does help us to decrease conflicts. thank you for sharing, wish you all the best!