Self Awareness in Leaders: Learn the Benefits and How to Develop It

If you want to be a leader who is able to make good and effective decisions, the answer is to develop self-awareness.

Self-awareness is not only about influencing others, but also awareness of one's own abilities and limitations.

This skill can help you become someone who is trusted in the workplace and by those around you. Therefore, it is important to develop this ability.

Learn more about the types, characteristics, and how to build self-awareness below.

Understanding Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is a person's ability to understand their own character, feelings, motivations, and desires.

BetterUp defines self-awareness as the ability to control and be aware of actions, thoughts, or emotions that are in accordance with or not with one's own standards.

Someone with high self-awareness can evaluate themselves, regulate their emotions, behave according to values, and understand their own image in the eyes of others. Simply put, self-awareness is the ability to objectively assess one's own actions, feelings, and thoughts.

This ability will help a leader to assess their development and effectively change their views and direction of leadership when needed.

Self awareness in leadership

Self awareness in leadership is characterized by the ability to understand the characteristics, behaviors, and abilities of a leader that influence the people around them, such as team members and internal stakeholders of the company.

Leaders with this ability are able to manage how to speak and behave effectively with coworkers and their own team members. They can adjust or adapt to any situation to ensure that all plans and responsibilities are completed properly.

Benefits of Self Awareness

Some of the benefits of self awareness that can be felt are:

• Able to influence results or decisions in the team.
• Able to make decisions with confidence.
• Able to communicate with clear intentions.
• Able to understand things from different perspectives.
• Reducing assumptions and biases in acting or making decisions.
• Helps you build better relationships.
• Able to regulate emotions well.
• Reduces stress and makes you happier.

Types of Self Awareness

There are two types of self-awareness, namely:

• Public self-awareness: being aware of how you appear or look in the eyes of others. This ability makes you understand the goals and forms of norms that exist in the social sphere, then, effectively carry them out so that they can be accepted by society.
• Private self-awareness: being aware of and reflecting on one's own internal condition. The characteristics of someone who has private self-awareness are introspective and manage their feelings and behavior well.

Characteristics of People with Self-Awareness

In general, here are 8 characteristics and traits of someone who has good self-awareness, quoted from Indeed:

Reflective

This skill is characterized by the ability to reflect on your thoughts, words, and behavior when interacting with others.

Empathize

This means that you are able to understand the needs and conditions of others. This is a form of supportive leadership.

Observant

A leader will be observant in seeing the situation around him and who he is talking to. You will be able to pay attention to the situation around you to know how to respond or act well.

Perceptive

This trait means that you can anticipate the possibilities that will occur from decisions or actions made.

Responsive

Responsive means that you are a leader who practices active listening when dealing with others. You are also able to behave according to who you are talking to.

Self-control

The ability to control your actions and how you speak to others. However, this does not mean that you keep and hold back your emotions, but are able to show emotions well and according to their portion.

Wise

A leader with self-awareness will be a wise figure and a role model in making decisions. You will be wise in making decisions or choices that can affect others.

Adaptable

Able to adapt in front of other people or different interlocutors. In addition, you are also able to control your behavior in any situation.

How to Build Self-Awareness

Some ways to build good self-awareness are:

1. Get to know yourself, starting from your behavior, habits, needs, weaknesses, strengths, to self-standards.
2. Pay attention to how other people behave in front of you or how they react to your actions or decisions.
3. Ask for input from those closest to you, such as family, partners, friends, and superiors.
4. Find ways or situations where you can show empathy to others.
5. Be more observant in recognizing your own attitudes and strengths.
6. Find patterns of attitudes or habits that shape the way you think and react.
7. Evaluate your own attitudes, behaviors, feelings, and thoughts.

It can be concluded that self-awareness is the ability to be aware of your own character, feelings, motivations, and desires. This ability also makes you aware of your influence on others, such as team members.

To learn how to build and master self-awareness in leadership, you can study in Prasmul-Eli's short program entitled Self Leadership Training.

In this short program, you will learn important aspects of leadership, such as self-awareness, self-management, and team management directly from professionals and industry experts.

Interested? Register now and start learning about leadership right away!