An article on the management-issues.com website tells the story of a woman in a leading position who had serious problems: she simply could not help dominating every dialogue of which she was a part. Deep down she held the opinion that if you want to make your mark, you must always be heard. This was her blocker. On the other hand, she valued teamwork greatly and was keen to learn constantly.
She clearly had to begin by allowing more space to her colleagues in conversation and during meetings. Her main driver was "listening for learning". Therefore she asked her colleagues always to signal to her with a yellow card if she started talking too much at meetings.
Effective change: self-awareness is crucial
The author of the article, which was originally published on the website of the INSEAD business school, also teaches leadership development programmes at that same school. He offers the following list of common rules people set themselves for self-improvement purposes:
- Becoming an active listener
- Stopping micro-managing
- Getting emotions under control
- Expanding networking skills
- Improving communication skills
Every leader is unique, so their developmental needs differ. At all events, one must first improve one's own self-awareness. Exploring the inner forces that either support or derail your self-improvement efforts has to be at the centre of your attempts to improve. This is the core claim of a recent book by researchers from top business schools, entitled Exploring Leadership Drivers and Blockers.
Discover your drivers and blockers
By increasing your level of self-awareness you are better prepared to create a leadership development action plan that will truly help you. There are various drivers and blockers: your world view, emotions, personality traits, values and motivators. All of these may help you to change or, on the contrary, make change more difficult.
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Woodward, I. C., Shaffakat, S., Dominé, V. H. Exploring Leadership Drivers and Blockers. 2019. 184 pages