Leader in You Part 2: Understanding Your Self

What is the difference between Leader Development and Leadership Development?

Day (2000) differentiated between leader and leadership development. He refers to leader development as an intrapersonal skill set that involves self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-motivation. Leader development also involves work toward self-discovery, or the development of individual leadership characteristics. Leadership development, on the other hand, he describes as interpersonal development, or as social capital development, based on relationships and cognitive and social skills. In this article, we will provide tips that will help you develop competencies related to intrapersonal development.

Self-Awareness or Understanding Yourself

Self-awareness plays an important role in leader development. Self-awareness is knowing yourself, your own personality, and your leadership style. Knowing your weaknesses and strengths will help you to identify opportunities for personal growth (Gallagher & Costal, 2012). When you have opportunities to do what you do best, you will receive more satisfaction from your work, and you will become more productive. Think about what shapes your personal identity and your motivations.

The following tips will help you to identify and label your strengths:

• Listen to yourself
• Identify what brings you personal fulfillment
• Identify what you like to do
• Articulate your definition of success

• Identify what actions and tasks you complete that make you successful (in other words, determine why you are successful)

Our values, beliefs, ethics, and character traits often shape our identity. Recall your core values and what contributed to you choosing these values. Often values influence our ethical decision-making and behavior. Understanding our own values helps us better understand others and achieve common goals. A person's character traits inform a person's behavior. To better understand yourself, rate yourself on the following character traits, identified by Josephson (1998). As you look over the traits, ask yourself these questions: Which describe you well? Which do not describe you well? Are there any that do not describe you, but you wish did?

• Trustworthiness
• Respect
• Responsibility
• Fairness
• Caring
• Citizenship

Self-Improvement

Self-improvement is an important step in leader development. Engaging in personal reflection is a great way to approach self-improvement and intrapersonal leader development. 

Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and Kevin Cashman's Leadership from the Inside Out are two great models to start with. We adapted the following questions from Covey and Cashman's works to help you begin to explore the leader in you.

Questions to Foster the Leader in You

1. Do I intentionally tend to all aspects of my personal well-being? Is there an area(s) I need to improve in?
2. What are my guiding personal beliefs? What values are most important to me?
3. What are my strengths and talents? How often am I applying them in my daily life?  
4. Do I think globally and act locally through my life and work?
5. Am I open to new ways of doing things? If not, what can I do to change that?
6. Can I prioritize things in my personal life and work life? If not, what can I do to change that?
7. Do I value relationships with other people? If yes, how do I influence them?
8. Do I assume the best in people? If not, what can I do to change that?
9. Do I practice empathetic listening? If not, what can I do to change that?
10. Do I feel in control of my life? If not, what can I do to change that?

Take 15 minutes in the morning or before bed, or maybe during your lunch hour, to reflect upon these questions without distractions. Over two weeks, focus on one question each day. You will be surprised how reflecting on these questions may impact your mindset as you go about your day.

Moving Forward

After you answer and reflect on all ten questions, consider setting goals for the top three areas you would like to improve in. SMART goals, or goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely (Purdue Extension, 2017), are an easy way to engage in personal goal setting. If you are unfamiliar with SMART goals, you can read more about them in this Purdue Extension article.

We hope this article will help you to think about your personal journey of developing the leader in YOU.  For more resources related to leader and leadership development, please feel free to contact us. Check out the other articles in our series:

• Leader in You Part 1 - Understanding Yourself
• Leader in You Part 3 - Get Motivated
• Leader in You Part 4 - Self Mastery: How to Thrive and Not Just Survive

References and Resources

Cashman, K. (2017). Leadership from the inside out: Becoming a leader for life. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Covey, S. R. (2004). The 7 habits of highly effective people: Powerful lessons in personal change. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

Day, D. V. (2000). Leadership development: A review in context. The leadership quarterly, 11(4), 581-613.

Gallagher, D., & Costal, J. (2012). The self-aware leader: A proven model for reinventing yourself. American Society for Training and Development. Alexandria, VA

Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2004). Leadership: A communication perspective. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

Komives, S. R., & Lucas, N. McMahon. T.R (2007). Exploring Leadership. John Willey & Son, Inc., San Francisco, CA.

Josephson, M. (1998). The six pillars of character. The ethics edge, 13-21.

Purdue Extension. (2017). Set yourself up for new year success with S.M.A.R.T goals.