The Journey to Leadership -- A Four-Part Series for New, Transitioning, and Established Leaders

The Journey to Leadership is a four-part series that provides structure for new, transitioning and established leaders in the process of charting, redefining, or redirecting their career course. For some, this series will take you into new territory; for others, it will serve as a reminder of the vital tools that will sustain you through the next stretch of your journey.

Part II – Self-Perception and Leadership

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
-- Shakespeare.

What constitutes a leader? Are great leaders born or made? Are you an effective leader? How do you discover your capacity to lead as well as your leadership approach? The answers to these questions are multifaceted, strongly opined, and sometimes even hotly contested. Schools of thought differ on the best method of identifying your leader within, ranging from intense analysis and examination, to an intuitive discovery of leadership qualities and characteristics. Whatever method you may seek, I believe that you must have a keen sense of self and an understanding of your leadership style before you can lead effectively. Strong self-perception is vital to achieving and maintaining leadership, credibility, and legitimacy in any organizational structure.

Understanding the key to self-perception begins by knowing whom and what you are from a value structure point of view as well as knowing your strengths and weaknesses from a technical skill perspective. If your end goal is to be all things to all people, companies, and situations, you will be, at best, a mediocre leader. It is my opinion that you must recognize your limitations, your strengths, and weaknesses, and embrace the whole set of factors versus only those that you think will reflect leadership. After all, good leaders are learners who welcome input and constructive criticism from subordinates and others in their sphere of influence.

To begin measuring your degree of self-perception, ask yourself a few questions:

Is my self-perception healthy and strong enough to intuitively navigate treacherous waters, influence senior management, and develop and motivate staff as though the staff members developed the ideas themselves?

Do I have fundamental respect for people and sensitivity to others’ thoughts and opinions, diverse experiences and backgrounds? Am I a team player?

Do I have the ability to express myself clearly and concisely verbally, through well-written materials, and to respond to others through active listening? Or, am I completely self-absorbed?

Now, make a list of career accomplishments that demonstrate your responses to the above questions. How has your knowledge or lack of knowledge of self-awareness impacted your leadership quotient? What results of your leadership have led to accomplishments in your organization by your peers, your team, or other constituencies?

I am not alone in my opinion that effective leadership begins with strong self-perception, yet its importance may not be emphasized adequately in evaluating and assessing business leaders. However, among the thought leaders whom I’ve identified as addressing this topic effectively are Dr. Louis Csoka, Dr. David Campbell, and Dr. Manfred F.R. Kets De Vries.

Dr. Csoka is well known by many executives for his service as Director of Research at The Conference Board. He also served for 21 years on the West Point faculty in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership, and today serves as President and Founder of APEX Performance. In a recent Wharton Leadership Digest article titled, “The Inner Game of Leadership: Peak Performance for Business Leaders,” Dr. Csoka wrote: “Some say the first challenge of leadership is to know whom you lead. I say the first challenge of leadership is to know who you are. When freshmen enter the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, they encounter a high stress environment. The aim is not simply to harass or haze them. Rather, the challenging environment pushes the aspiring officers to discover who they are. The U.S. Army teaches that you cannot successfully lead others until you have learned to lead yourself. The inner game of leadership means exercising inner control over what you think, say and do, and when achieved, reaching peak leadership performance is more likely…” Similarly, “Peak performance for athletes depends on having control over one’s emotional and physiological states, and much the same is true for business leaders. They face relentless pressure to out-perform their competitors even as technologies and rules of competition are changing, and mental discipline can often spell the difference.”

Another example comes from Dr. Campbell, a pioneer in leadership and career development who created the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and the Campbell Interest and Skill survey which became widely used assessment tools for corporations worldwide. Dr. Campbell also created the Campbell Leadership Descriptor, a self-assessment tool designed to help individuals identify characteristics for successful leadership, recognize their strengths, and identify areas for improvement. In one of the many books he has authored, If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, You’ll Probably End Up Somewhere Else, he helps readers understand, appreciate, and utilize their positive assets and make the most of what he or she has.

Dr. Kets De Vries, Chair of Leadership Development at global business school, INSEAD, and a world-renowned thought leader who developed The Global Executive Leadership Inventory, a program and guidebook with 100 action and behavior-based questions designed to measure leadership competency. According to his publication, “the program helps participants spot their leadership behavior roadblocks and then take steps toward improvement.” And, it “enables executives to test their perception of reality and to gain in-depth feedback about their effectiveness, and offers an opportunity for reflection and self-development.”

If you have an opportunity to participate in leadership assessments through your current place of employment, you will likely have exposure to these or other proponents of the all-important self-perception and leadership connection. Embrace the notion and you will identify and develop your inner leader within.