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Running an organization comes with many challenges regardless. However, the effects of the global pandemic of COVID-19 have placed profound new strains on companies. Leaders need to be more sensitive between a fragile economy and social unrest than ever regarding others\’ situations.
A lack of awareness causes most work conflicts. Leaders don\’t always realize the impact of their behaviors on the people around them. Because many organizations don\’t have a systematic way to solve this problem, many hire a coach or apply some other form of training.
Related: About PGI
Why Self-Awareness is Difficult to Find
Human nature allows us to judge ourselves by our intent rather than our impact. Because of this tendency, those in influential roles become blind to how others view their behavior. Indeed social scientists have documented how blind spots affect workplace conversations. We tend to be hard-wired for defensive reasoning, making us forget the effect we have on others.
People naturally consider their successes as something they did with their abilities. In comparison, any failures are related to external factors. This self-serving bias inhibits our ability to accept negative feedback, even if it is constructive.
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While these habits are natural, that doesn\’t mean that we cannot correct them. To those in leadership positions, they should constantly strive to develop their skills. Self-awareness should be one.
Does your leadership team need help fine-tuning their skills? Proctor Gallagher Consultants has programs to help your team develop their professional skills.
4 Strategies for Improving Self-Awareness
There are many different ways that you can work with your leadership team to develop their self-awareness skills. Evaluate your team and pick what strategies appeal to them.
1. Participate in a team simulation exercise.
Most people think of team simulations as going up to a remote location and practicing trust exercises. However, there are a lot more options that you can participate in to help your team improve their cooperation together.
Some exercises lead teams through life-threatening situations to help them establish open discussion, ways to collaborate, and decision-making as a unit. The end goal is all the same. You know you have a successful team building simulation if you find yourself and your team thinking how awesome it would be to work together like this back at work.
Related: Thinking into Results
2. Hire a skilled facilitator for your team.
Tough decisions can sometimes cause vast ripples in a workplace, but they are necessary to develop your leadership team. With the help of a skilled professional, your team can build leadership skills that can improve workplace performance.
Hiring a consultant can help diagnose counterproductive habits and suggest a way to address them in real-time. Their observations could look at how frequently team members propose a new action or how often they agree with or build upon another\’s ideas.
While overall, a team should have a healthy mix of these actions during the conversation. However, if they often go off topic, the facilitator will continue to observe the team\’s dynamics. Clearly, this work can be mentally and emotionally demanding, but the results it produces are powerful.
3. Get a Coach.
Like every skill, leadership is something that should be practiced, yet sometimes we struggle to resolve our weaknesses. This is where having a coach can take your skills to the next level. Even if we know and recognize those weaknesses, we often don\’t know how to remove those blocks.
Having a coach is the key to unlocking your team\’s leadership potential through self-development.
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4. Attend an interpersonal skills lab.
Developed by Jim Detert and Bobby Parmar, these unique skill labs immerse individuals into challenging decision-making scenarios. The difficult scenarios are made to help participants feel uncomfortable to discover something about themselves within the process.
The process deliberately stresses out the individual and is then coached through the process. Findings from interpersonal skills labs help promote self-awareness and skill development.
Related: Your Success
Final Thoughts
Knowing your blind spots within your leadership team can help you better develop them. This leadership development can be easier than you think with the help of a knowledgeable support team, coaches, and exercises.
Are you ready to invest in leadership development? For over five years, Proctor Gallagher Consultants have been helping turn around failing businesses by assisting them to grow their leadership teams. Turn your thinking into results today!