16 Mar 24
Learning how to collaborate with others is a key leadership skill. But so is learning how best to work with yourself.
Understanding how you operate, taking into consideration your constraints, and the nuances associated with your character and behaviour, will enable you to work at your very best level.
Carry out a SWOT analysis. Populate it through successive layers of information gleaned from your own reflections, past performance reports, and any other third party assessments you may have received over the years.
This will allow you to build an accurate picture of what makes you the person you are.
As a result of building this full understanding of how you operate, you will then be able to exploit this to achieve your peak performance level.
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#3 - Learning to work with yourself!
What?
One of the most important skills as a leader is undoubtably the ability to work with other people. This is important as it enables you to get things done through collaborative working. But when we talk about this aspect of leadership, there is always one person who is continually overlooked.
That person is you.
Why?
Being able to understand yourself and how best you work is fundamental to your success as a leader. If you imagine owning a car, you would do all you can to become familiar with the manner in which it performs. You would become acquainted with its top speed, its braking distance, the way it handles when going around corners at speed. You would also know what its fuel consumption is and, over time, the little nuances associated with it. The noises and rattles it makes as you drive over a bumpy road.
Your body and mind are no exception to this rule.
Do you know when you perform at your optimum?
When do you get tired?
What irritates you and how do you know when you are approaching your red lines?
What makes you lose patience?
What do you waste time on? Is it social media scrolling?
Do you mitigate this behaviour?
What are your vulnerabilities which combine to undermine your performance?
In what way are you continually self-sabotaging your own performance or career success?
How?
So what are the best ways for you to overcome this?
I recommend that you carry out a SWOT analysis on yourself. But ensure you do this objectively, taking into consideration not just your skills but your behaviours as outlined above.
Carry out the following steps:
- Carry this out from your perspective - reflect and be honest,
- Take into consideration previous performance reports that you may have received over your career. This will provide you with third party feedback from your line managers,
- Include findings from any 360 degree feedback activity or other leadership assessments (e.g. Myers Briggs etc).
- Consider any other informal feedback that you may have received.
By successively building up overlays from each of these areas, you will be able to form an accurate picture of what makes you the person you are.
This exercise will allow you identify clusters within each SWOT area.
This in turn will point you to areas which will benefit from an intervention.
Ultimately, this exercise will enable you to:
- Identify your strengths so you can play to them,
- Understand your weaknesses or vulnerabilities. You will then be able to decide which ones are worth the investment of your time and effort in addressing. Also, you will be able to highlight the ones you will be able to delegate to others,
- Appreciate the opportunities that you can exploit to your advantage to drive you forward,
- Be aware of the threats which may derail you. Don't be consumed by them. Rather, think of them as you would any business risk, either:
- Tolerate it,
- Treat (reduce) it,
- Terminate it,
- Transfer it (to someone or somewhere else if that is possible).
By acknowledging the above, you will be able to operate you much more effectively than before!
In Summary
I hope that you enjoyed reading this newsletter and that it has given you food for thought.
Developing a full understanding of exactly how you operate, when you operate at your highest level, and within the constraints you have, is key to achieving high performance.
Don't self-sabotage, learn how best to work with yourself!
Have a great week!
Whenever you're ready, here's how I can help you:
- Resources - Reading is an essential component to developing your own authentic leadership style. Check out my resources page for really inspiring books which I have found invaluable within my own leadership journey,
- Coach Station - Singular issue 60 minute coaching sessions,
- Coach Journey - Bespoke coaching packages of 6 or 12 sessions for transformative change,
- Schedule Optimiser - Online course allowing you to take back control of your diary.
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