The Self Intelligent Leader
“Let him that would move the world first move himself.”
— Socrates, Philosopher
A Self Intelligent leader is someone who has spent time developing their self-awareness and the ability to manage one’s thoughts, emotions, behaviours and capabilities. It may sound easy but in today’s fast-paced world, very few of us take the time to reflect on who we are, our values, our beliefs, our goals, our barriers, let alone spend time developing the skills to manage them. It is one of the most undervalued leadership skill and very few organisations spend the time or money developing the Self Intelligence of their leaders.
In organisations it is always follow the leader. People look to the leader to see how they should dress, behave, respond, deal with other business units etc – it is the leader that always sets the standard. Therefore all leadership starts with self-leadership. However many leadership programs today only touch on self-leadership and rarely go into any great depth on why a leader may think, emote or behave the way they do in various situations.
Ultimately, when you develop your Self Intelligence, it results in you having the courage to be you. A Self Intelligent leader is aware of their strengths and shortcomings and manages them both accordingly. When leaders are truly comfortable with who they are, participation in office politics that so often kills productivity in the workplace and creation of silos is done away with. Self Intelligent leaders are confident in themselves and don’t feel they need to prove themselves, therefore tension is replaced with a relaxed energy and this results in a fun and creative work environment. A Self Intelligent leader gets on with the job and is a role model through their actions, thereby becoming an inspiration to those around them. You don’t need to climb mountains or win sporting trophies to be an inspiration to those around you. You simply need to be you, to play your strengths and live an enthusiastic life. You can only do this when you’ve put in the effort to develop your self-awareness and have picked up a few tools to manage your thoughts, emotions and behaviours.
“The aim of life is self-development. To realise one’s nature perfectly – that is what each of us is here for.”
— Oscar Wilde
What stops people from developing their Self Intelligence? Well, some people are put off the whole personal development idea because of the many false prophets that grace our TV screens and bookstands promising that you can change your life and triple your income in just seven days. Other people are too busy with all the demands on their time and energy from both work and home. But perhaps the biggest reason is; rarely do you find Self Intelligence (self-awareness and self-management) on an organisation’s learning and development schedule. It’s not even taught in schools. It’s as if ‘knowing thyself’ is a given. Yet every teacher and philosopher throughout history has said the hardest thing to do in life is to truly know oneself. We do not know what we don’t know about ourselves and this lack of attention given to developing our leaders’ Self Intelligence is holding back our economic prosperity.
The Ministry of Economic Development recently released a research report called ‘Management Matters in New Zealand’. The research was done in conjunction with Treasury and the Department of Labour. The report suggested that improving a manager’s self-awareness would help drive improvements in management performance and that superior management is directly linked to higher productivity. Research also shows that New Zealand managers are quite inaccurate when it comes to rating their own managerial performance. They often think their performance is better than it is which highlights that lack of self-awareness. This is aligned to the Change Style Indicator, a US research study on management styles that has been conducted for two decades. Leaders are more likely to be unaware of how their behavior impacts others. The research also shows that a leader diminishes their credibility if they appear as if they know everything all of the time and disguise their mistakes and weaknesses.
In order to increase the creativity and productivity of an organisation, the organisation needs to invest in developing their people’s Self Intelligence. Organisations are responsible to provide a physically safe work environment for their staff. As the world of business evolves, forward-thinking organisations are realizing that they have to be responsible for the mental and emotional wellbeing of their employees too. When people are self-aware and able to take care of themselves, they are able to give so much more to all areas of their lives. Giving leaders the opportunity and tools to develop their Self Intelligence is just smart business.