Self-Awareness. The First Step to Being a Leader
The key to successfully managing yourself and others
Until you know what motivates you and what frustrates you, and what your values and goals are, stay away from management functions. Only self-aware leaders are effective
When the 75 members of the Stanford Graduate School of Business advisory committee were asked to name the most important ability of a leader, they almost unanimously answered: self-awareness. The problem is that leaders are so preoccupied with their work, with achieving their organization’s goals, with their careers, that they no longer have enough time and strength to get to know themselves.
They are interested in external signs of success: a luxury SUV, a new wife 20 years younger, an office on the top floor of a New York or London skyscraper. They think about how to cut out the competition in the company and earn more and more. It is only at a later age that they often discover that on the way to the top they have lost something extremely valuable: contact with themselves, others and the world. For important and influential people who have become disconnected from reality, the current crisis can be a blessing. When confronted with problems, it is easier to discover one’s authentic self, which is not necessarily the one one one is willing to reveal in…
