IT Leadership

A leader’s primary job is to lead their team to success. But, if you leading a team, department, or organization, how can you lead others effectively without first leading yourself? In this article, we will explore how developing self-coaching skills will better equip you to lead your team and empower them to succeed. You will learn to:

• Develop a growth mindset
• Become more self-aware
• Better manage your emotions
• Lead with authenticity

Developing A Growth Mindset

To lead yourself and others well, you must first adopt a growth mindset. This mindset will help you to better adapt to change, embrace challenges, and consistently improve yourself. This inward reflection allows for deeper self-awareness and makes your outward leadership more effective.

Leaders with a growth mindset view failures as opportunities and setbacks as educational. This allows them to model adaptive resilience and stay focused on the bigger picture. When leaders maintain optimism and a positive attitude, they inspire their teams to do the same.

A growth mindset is also highly receptive to feedback. This feedback can come from many sources, but it serves those who embrace this mindset well to actively seek it out. Openly receiving and acting on feedback helps you grow and demonstrate that growth is a priority. It also allows you to model the behavior you would expect from those you lead.

Becoming More Self-Aware

Self-awareness is a powerful attribute that all great leaders possess. It enables you to understand your emotions, strengths, and weaknesses, and how these impact your work and interactions with others. This is an essential first step to intentional leadership.

There are many ways to increase self-awareness, including:

• Regularly soliciting and reflecting on feedback
• journalling
• Taking personality assessments, such as those measuring Strengths, Myers-Briggs, or DISC
• Seeking feedback through leadership coaching
• Engaging in meditation

By seeking clarity on your core values and purpose, you establish a strong foundation for leading authentically. This self-awareness will help you make more conscious decisions, choose priorities that align with your values, and communicate these effectively to your team. In doing so, you establish credibility, trust, and respect.

Better Managing Your Emotions

Leaders experience a full range of emotions, and it is ok for your team to see you experience them. No one is immune to disappointment, frustration, or sadness. What matters most is how you manage these emotions and how you express them. This is how you establish trust and inspire others to manage theirs.

Emotions are powerful and can cloud your judgment if you don’t manage them. The first step to managing your emotions is to increase your self-awareness of how you are feeling and how it is affecting you. Once you have acknowledged this, you can then manage your response. You may need to take some space, engage in some deep breathing, or take a walk.

Managing your emotions also means managing your reactions. You cannot control how others behave, but you can control how you react to them. When you make a conscious effort to respond rather than react, you choose how you show up. Even in difficult situations, taking the time to collect your thoughts and respond with intention can lead to much better outcomes.

Lead With Authenticity

Leading with authenticity means leading with intention. This means making a commitment to grow, learning to adapt rapidly, and making space to listen to your heart as well as your mind. It means bringing your whole self to your leadership and modeling vulnerability to show that it is ok to be human.

As you continue to grow, prioritize your values, and lead from a place of authenticity, you will find your leadership mindset and skills evolving. By developing a growth mindset, increasing your self-awareness, better managing your emotions, and leading from authenticity, you will find yourself leading yourself with excellence. And, leading yourself is the first step to effectively leading your team.

Conclusion

Coaching skills are an invaluable asset to leaders, empowering them to empower others. By choosing to lead yourself first, you unlock the door to leading your team with authenticity and excellence. And, in turn, you will inspire your team to do the same.