Have you ever stopped to think that the way you express yourself directly affects the people around you? Each individual may or may not be more receptive to a command, guidance or criticism, taking into account two factors: the profile of the speaker and the one receiving the information.
In a company, the relationship between the manager and the team must include fluid communication and the sensitivity to understand each person's work style. Therefore, the manager must be aware of his role as a leader, acting with the objective of motivating team members in order to generate results.
Even before leading others, a leader needs to lead himself, being the owner of his emotions, his thoughts and what happens inside him, because the reflection of what is happening internally is externalized in verbal and non-verbal actions.
Self-knowledge is the ability to perceive oneself before the world, in social relationships and in everyday activities. Having knowledge about your potential, capabilities, limitations, is essential for a leader to be able to improve and strengthen their relationships with people and, consequently, obtain better results.
Leadership development goes far beyond running a team. The ability to work with the potential of each professional in a team so that they can, each with their own characteristics, reach the expected results requires knowledge of the leader's own abilities and difficulties. Therefore, self-knowledge and continuous learning about its characteristics are key.
I want to highlight 3 key points in self-knowledge to be a better leader:
KNOWING YOUR OWN LIMITS: this is one of the richest points of self-knowledge because it develops the observation of your own reactions and learns from them.
KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS AND EMPOWER THEM: In the old leadership paradigm, the focus was usually on weaknesses rather than strengths. Today, it is much more appropriate to use Steve Jobs' interesting maxim: "Put all your energy into your strengths and delegate the rest."
And when to invest in weaknesses? When, in some way, there are deficiencies that are sacrificing strengths and compromising performance. The idea is to immediately take care of improving the areas of low performance, when they are very apparent, but not to be “imprisoned” in the deficiencies, emphasizing them, because we are all the sum of strengths and weaknesses.
KNOW YOUR OWN MOTIVATIONS: A very practical advantage of motivation is that it raises enthusiasm and commitment to the search for better results. Increases creative ability and improves communication skills. Knowledge about what really motivates is a driving energy for leadership and achievement of goals. The combination of strengths and motivation generates fantastic results and really elevates performance.
One of the most effective ways to evolve professionally is to ask people on your team or co-workers what they think about you. This shows that you are willing to try to see your improvement points to improve them.
Upon reaching a good level of self-knowledge, the leader is also able to take another essential step in the daily work: identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each member of his team. From there, it will be possible to devise strategies to better explore the virtues of each professional, also offering the commanded the possibility of development in the aspects in which they need to improve.
So, how are you going to improve your self-knowledge from now on? If you need help, just look for me. I am ready to help you on this journey of self-discovery.
Édila Souza, Executive Educator and Columnist Gente Mais
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