Do You Need to Assess Your Skills as a Leader?
As a business leader, beware of the ivory tower syndrome. The metaphorical ivory tower is anywhere you isolate yourself — from your employees, from your stakeholders, and even from an honest way to assess your skills as a leader.
How Well Are You Leading?
If you don’t check periodically with others as to how they experience you as a leader, how do you know if you are helping them to perform at their peak? Face it, when it comes to leading others, there are always areas in which to improve. Climb down from your tower and be humble and vulnerable enough to uncover leadership areas that need repair and refinement.
First, make sure you fully understand the expectations and scope of your role and responsibilities as a new leader. If you are new to leadership, there is a temptation to continue to do what you did so well as an individual contributor that helped you to get promoted to manager. For example, we know from people manager assessment data that successful people leaders excel at:
There are, of course, leadership simulation assessments and leadership 360’s that can help pinpoint key areas for leadership development. Take advantage of these whenever possible to test your leadership abilities and help you toward higher performance.
3 Recommendations For Getting Leadership Feedback
There is also a free source for your leadership review — your colleagues. As a leader, you should have thick enough skin to invite and welcome honest employee feedback to ensure that you know your strengths and weaknesses. If you do not have an accurate and conscious understanding of your leadership abilities, behaviors, and motives, here are three recommendations for how to request feedback and how to receive it:
The Bottom Line
If you think you need to assess your skills as a leader, invest the time and effort to understand how you are perceived by those around you, Then do what it takes to play to your strengths, shore up your weaknesses, and thank those around you for the gift of feedback.
To learn more about how to become a better leader, download 6 Top Traps That Can Sabotage Success as a Leader
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