Leaders who want to get better understand the importance of increasing their self-awareness. Low self-awareness results in unleveraged strengths, unaddressed blind spots, and unfulfilled potential. But when self-awareness increases, so does the impact and influence of the leader. So, how do you increase your self-awareness? Start with these four tips. 

1. Practical Assessments

One advantage we have in our current day is the number of assessments that are available to help us understand our uniqueness, strengths, and personality. Some common tools today are Myers Briggs, DiSC, Strengthsfinder, Enneagram, Leading From Your Strengths, Emotional Intelligence, and Leadership 2.0. These are just a few of the assessments available on the market today. I recommend taking several practical assessments, and then paying attention to four things:

• Confirmations – Ask yourself, “What does this assessment confirm that I already suspected to be true?” Sometimes an assessment gives language or voice to something you’ve felt all along, but you’ve never been able to put it into words. 

• Patterns – When you look at the results of multiple assessments, what are the dominant themes or patterns that seem to emerge? If multiple assessments are saying the same thing, that’s an important clue to who you are and how you’re wired. 

• Blind Spots – Consider the tendencies an assessment reveals about potential blind spots. Every personality has its strengths, but there are also areas where we are most vulnerable. Becoming aware of these gaps is important if we want to grow, improve, and avoid leadership landmines. 

• Perceptions – Assessments can help us understand what it’s like to be on the other side of me. In other words, some assessments help me see how I come across, how I’m perceived by others, and what it’s like to work with me. These insights are extremely valuable for developing healthy working relationships. 

Taking multiple assessments brings to light confirmations, patterns, blind spots, and perceptions that I may not otherwise recognize. 

2. Perceptive Feedback

Gleaning feedback is immensely valuable…so long as you’re willing to listen to the feedback. Though feedback can be painful at times, it’s also a gift that will help you get better. Consider two approaches to acquiring perceptive feedback:

• Feedback Seeking – In other words, intentionally seek out feedback from friends, family members, co-workers, or supervisors. Because giving feedback is difficult, most people won’t voluntarily offer it. As leaders, we have to seek it out by asking for feedback and creating a safe environment for others to deliver it. 

• Feedback Systems – To embed feedback into your organization, create feedback systems. These systems can include annual reviews, weekly one-on-one’s, and assessment tools that gauge the health of your organization’s culture. These systems should foster safe environments for respondents to share honest feedback without retribution.  

Again, most people don’t volunteer feedback (especially when it comes to your performance). Whether it’s personally seeking it out, or creating feedback systems, make sure there’s a place for people to speak into your life and offer insights that will help you get better. Whatever you do, don’t retaliate or get defensive. 

3. Professional Coaching

I like to say that a good coach takes AIM at your potential. In other words, they assess your performance, provide insights to improve, and motivate you to get better. So, what’s the difference between feedback and coaching? Feedback often comes from within the organization whereas coaching often comes from outside of it. 

I once had a coach give me feedback on my communication abilities. This was immensely valuable because they could see things I couldn’t. Their insights were valuable and unemotional…and that’s why coaching is so important. Outside coaching comes from someone who has nothing to lose. In other words, they’re not emotionally attached to the situation (or to you), so they’re willing to share insights to help you grow without worrying about losing a friendship. 

4. Personal Reflection

If you’re going to truly benefit from assessments, feedback, and coaching, you have to follow each of them with personal reflection. Reflection turns insights into action. Reflection helps you take all of the data and discoveries gleaned from the other self-awareness tips and turn them into practical next steps. 

Your personal reflection might happen after a series of assessments, a burst of feedback, or a coaching session. You might step away from your office for a couple of hours of uninterrupted reflection to help you determine what to do with the information you’ve harvested. You might write in a journal, create a personal growth plan, or seek out accountability for several helpful action steps. Whatever your approach, don’t skip personal reflection. 

The beauty of self-awareness is that it brings focus to your personal growth. It helps you strategically pursue growth in the areas that will make the quickest and most noticeable change in your life. The people closest to you will thank you the most.