Self-awareness in leadership is an understanding of how your personality traits, habits and abilities affect your interactions with the people around you, particularly in the workplace. Leaders who are self-aware actively reflect on how their words and actions are perceived by others and work to change any of their own shortcomings so they can lead their peers more effectively.

Self-awareness is said to be one of the most important qualities for a good leader. Self-awareness is important in leadership for the following reasons –

• Self – Awareness helps leaders make better choices. 
• Self – Awareness can impact a company’s finances. 
• Self – Awareness helps leaders understand what they bring to their role. 
• Self – Awareness allows leaders to be realistic in their expectations. 

How to Improve Self – Awareness in Leadership?

Consider these steps to help you improve self – awareness in your leadership style –

• Be Perceptive About Your Traits: Leverage your strengths to achieve positive results. Acting in self – awareness means evaluating whether you are making the right choices to meet your goals and advance the goals of others.
• Know Yourself:Self-awareness is powered by the ongoing process of self – reflection. Self – awareness is also tied to your emotional intelligence, which is the ability to recognize emotions in yourself and in others. Knowing yourself also means determining your internal standard of right and wrong. Your beliefs and behaviours help determine this standard.
• Look for Patterns: To achieve more self – awareness as a leader, find out what makes you the best you can be and strive towards those outcomes. Notice when you receive a positive response from your communication and actions as you interact with your team. Work to improve those traits and use them as much as possible.
• Gather Feedback from Trusted Contacts:Self – aware leaders ask friends, family and co-workers they trust to give insight about specific traits as they seek to better themselves.
• Identify How Other People React to You:One way you can assess how your actions affect others in the workplace is by observing or reflecting on how they react to you. Identify what factors cause them to respond in a certain way. This helps you understand your impact on others.
• Find Ways You Can Show More Empathy:Considering the feelings of others as you communicate and make decisions is another way to be self – aware as a leader. Paying attention to the emotional needs of those you lead, can help guide your decisions and relationships as a self – aware leader.
• Continually Reflect: Those who are self – aware continually process and reflect on their situations before, during and after the moment. Use your emotional intelligence and empathy to assess how you impact others through your personal characteristics.

Self – awareness is an essential trait of a great leader. By knowing your values, personality, needs, habits and emotions, and how they affect your actions and the actions of others, you’ll be better able to manage your stress, make better decisions and ultimately lead others to do the same.