Current research on leadership shows that over the course of our career, four competencies trump all others as the greatest predictors of sustained success: self-awareness, learning agility, communication and influence.
The last two deal with how leaders interact with their world, and the first two address leaders' internal relationship to "reality."
The first mark of conscious leaders is self-awareness and the ability to tell themselves the truth. Distortion and denial are cornerstones traits of unconscious leaders.
Conscious leaders are passionately committed to knowing themselves. This is the basis of their willingness to regard every interaction as an opportunity to learn and their willingness to source a state of curiosity and wonder.
Contrary to unconscious leaders, conscious leaders regularly interrupt natural reactivity. That means they take a moment to pause, breathe, and ask themselves this important question: "Where am I?" They're committed to self-awareness, so they answer it honestly. If they recognize that they've become reactive, they don't shame or blame themselves or others.
An astute person once said that all information falls into three buckets:
1. What I know.
2. What I know I don't know.
3. What I don't know I don't know.
Though conscious leaders have a good grasp on what they know and are interested in what they don't know, they are inexorably drawn to what they don't know they don't know. When it comes to self-awareness, they spend their time in the unknown by opening themselves up to feedback.
People are giving us feedback all the time, and the vast majority of it is never verbalized. They give us immediate feedback about what we are committed to at an unconscious level. Radical responsibility is looking at your results to see what you've actually committed to. This source of feedback is a direct channel to powerful self-awareness.
To improve your self-awareness, it is highly recommended that you get a leadership coach. The great thing about technology is that you can be supported by some of the best coaches in the world through the telephone or Skype.
Source: Jim Dethmer: The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success
Develop Leadership Skills: A Mobile Reference Guide
For more on conscious leadership, go to: http://www.coachingtip.com/2014/08/coaching-conscious-leadership.html