Resonant leadership requires a unique blend of
characteristics that reflect your vision, beliefs, and values, as well as your
ability to practice mindfulness, hope, and compassion to help renew yourself
and maintain success (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005). Reflecting on my own practice at being a
resonant leader was a bit challenging for me. I think I have aspects of certain areas
required to be successful including compassion, positivity, and mindfulness, I
also feel that the areas where I am successful are a attributes of my lack of
success in other areas. As I’ve
progressed through this Leadership program, I have started to become more aware
of my strengths and weaknesses that play a role in my development as an
effective leader and have noticed that my strengths are valuable
representations of my values and beliefs.
However, my strengths also point to the areas in my development that are
struggling.
After completing this exercise I was
surprised to discover that I may not be as in tune to others as I
might think I am. While I've worked hard to put other people and their needs first, I have unintentionally lost who I am and what my goals are through communicating. I’ve always considered
myself and actively worked on showing compassion and empathy for people through
listening and offering a positive, optimistic view of a better future; however,
I realize that I haven’t exactly figured out how to take my personal beliefs
and values and translate them in a way that represents who I am. As a result of
this, I feel like I’m not as authentic when communicating and building
relationships with others because I haven’t fully developed that basic,
foundation of self-awareness. While I feel I have a strong and honest
understanding of the basic values and goals I have for myself, this exercise
highlighted that I struggle with grasping and interpreting my values to others
in a way that inspires and motivates.
This disconnect is something that I think relates to my underdeveloped
self-confidence. When dealing with
myself and my own questions, I feel like my self-awareness is strong and clear,
but when pressured by outside sources, I find myself lacking the confidence to
hold on to my beliefs for fear of having insufficient skills and knowledge to
back those beliefs and values up. An
area of weakness for me when building relationships with others is my ability
to effectively communicate my vision. Not being able to effectively communicate
has caused me to lack self-confidence, which in turn, has effected my presence and
impact as a leader (McKee, Boyatzis, & Johnson, 2008). I find it a lot easier for me to step out of
my own thoughts and into someone else’s and offer advice through their
perspective as it relates to the situation than through my own. While I think this can be a positive area for
me, I do think this quality also hurts me in my development for staying
authentic and in tune with myself and the environment to communicate a clear
vision for the future.
I feel like I have worked hard on
building the elements of emotional intelligence, but without a strong
foundation of self-awareness, I struggle to connect my skills and abilities
with others. This exercise has
highlighted more specifically the areas that I need to develop first, which
include understanding my self-awareness and believing in my abilities, as well
as working on gaining self-confidence through actively engaging in situations
that make myself and my values feel vulnerable.
From my experience, I have found that putting myself in vulnerable and
unsettling situations has helped me gain valuable knowledge and understanding
for myself and my strengths. Because I
am forced to defend myself, I am better able to grasp my capabilities and
strengths, which has helped my development.
I do feel that I have been successful in inspiring and encouraging others
to be their best, but I worry that many times I may have been encouraging
others through reading them and reflecting what I think they want to hear
instead of what I really believe. I want
to be able to express myself and believe in myself, so that I can effectively
lead change and work toward a goal that I am passionate about. Through
continually practice, I feel like I will continue to improve and gain knowledge to
build a stronger foundation for being a resonant leader and a more self-aware person.
References
Boyatzis, R. E., & McKee, A. (2005). Resonant Leadership: Renewing yourself and connecting with others through mindfulness, hope, and compassion. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
McKee, A., Boyatzis, R. E., & Johnston, F. (2008). Becoming a resonant leader: Develop your emotional intelligence, renew your relationships, sustain your effectiveness. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Pub.
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