Three Keys to Better Leadership: Self Trust. Self Concept. Self Awareness.

A good leader creates leaders within their organization, inspiring individuals to be the best version of themselves - and in turn - the work they create is outstanding. If you desire to become a leader that does more than simply manage tasks and people, there are three key things you need to work on every single day.

Self Trust. Self Concept. Self Awareness.

You must trust in your own abilities to lead. You must know who you are and what you stand for. And you must be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses. With these three keys in place, you can become the leader you aspire to be, the leader your people truly need, and make a real difference in the world.

Self Trust: Believe in Yourself

A lack of self trust keeps so many amazing female leaders, CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs ... stuck. When you don't trust yourself, you pause before taking action. You question if the decisions you make are the right ones. You seek external validation in order to feel confident.

A strong leader trusts in their own abilities, knowing that they can handle whatever comes their way - no matter what. This self confidence is essential in order to inspire others and make a real difference in the world.

How do you build self trust?

Self trust is about building a relationship with yourself. To build a relationship with a friend, you need to spend time with them, learn about them, and keep commitments to them. The same is true for building a relationship with you.

Spend time with yourself. You need to know who you are and what you stand for. This can be done through journaling, meditation, or simply spending time alone thinking about your goals, values, and aspirations. The more time you spend getting to know yourself, the more you will learn about what is truly important to you.

Learn about yourself. When you spend some time with yourself, you will inevitably learn new things about the person within. You might discover a hidden skill or hobby. You might find that you are passionate about something that you've never spent much time thinking about before.

If you made a promise to a dear friend, you'd keep that promise, right? So why do you think it's okay to break the promises you make to yourself? If you promise yourself that you WILL do something, honor that commitment and make it happen.

To build self trust you must build a relationship with yourself. This means spending time with yourself, learning about yourself, and keeping commitments to yourself. Building this relationship with YOU will help you to become a better leader.

Self Concept: How You See Yourself

Your self concept is how you see yourself. This includes your thoughts and beliefs about who you currently are. This includes your values, personality traits, intelligence and abilities. Your self concept is based on your past experiences and how you've interacted with the world around you. It's important to have a healthy self concept because it helps you understand why you do the things you do and how your beliefs and behaviors affect yourself and others. 

Unhealthy self concepts can lead to things like low self esteem, anxiety - or a lack of self trust. Self concept can be further broken down into your current self concept and your ideal self concept. If you don't currently perceive yourself as the person you WANT to be, what changes can you make to become that person?

A strong self concept is essential to becoming a better leader. A confident leader creates a confident team. A leader who values herself creates a team of people who value themselves. A leader who believes in herself creates a team who believes in their abilities. These are all valuable traits that create more leaders (rather than a tasks managing atmosphere).

Self Awareness: Knowing Yourself Fully 

Self awareness is all about the present moment. It's about being mindful of your thoughts, feelings and actions in the here and now. To be truly self aware, you must acknowledge both the good and bad aspects of who you are. 

Self awareness is about knowing your strengths and weaknesses. When you know your strengths, you can embrace them and use them to your advantage. When you know your weaknesses, you can work on improving them and ask for help when needed.

When you are self aware, you are able to understand how you best interact with the people around you. You understand your words and actions and how they affect the people around you.

Being self aware is also linked to being better able to manage your stress, make better decisions, and develop less anxiety. This will ultimately lead others to do the same - and help you be on your way to creating a team of leaders within your organization.

There are 3 keys to better leadership - and they all start with you. When you create a foundation of self trust, self concept, and self awareness, you allow yourself to be an even better leader who does more than simply manage tasks.