What’s your leadership style and how do you lead yourself? Maybe you haven’t considered such an internal question. Perhaps you’re busy leading your team to success. Are you trying to impress executive brass? Managers have failed at leading themselves because they lack a needed awareness about their actual impact on their employees. Managers don’t usually take care of themselves. The truth is being a manager can be an isolated experience, no matter the size of your team. You have to keep yourself motivated and inspired in order to do the same thing for your employees. How can you do for others what you don’t do for yourself? The good news is that there are four steps that will get you to lead yourself better so that you can effectively lead your team.

DISCOVER YOUR PASSION IN LEADERSHIP

What is it about leading people that lights a fire in you? The burning sensation you feel is nothing to fear (this time) because that’s passion. It helps answer the “why” question of what you do. You need to bring your passion into real-world practicality to be an effective leader of yourself. Establish a personal purpose, vision, and mission to carve the path of self-leadership. Your passion will lay the foundation for everything you will do as not just a manager, but a true leader of your employees.

KNOW YOUR LEADERSHIP ROLE

Leadership is about influencing others. You have the title—manager, director, supervisor—that you’re your employees know you’re in charge, but have you explored the roles? Leading by example and building a team are two examples. Self-leadership will force you into a deep-dive about your beliefs, assumptions, and what you think you know about your actual role. Once you know your role, then you can reflect on what facets of yourself to focus on.

SEEK FEEDBACK TO LEAD BETTER

Managers lean more to giving feedback than seeking it. You don’t want to miss out on deserved recognition or be late in getting the important wake-up call before things go completely off the rails. Identifying your areas of change helps you focus on where and what to do next for your teams.

DEVELOP LEADERSHIP AWARENESS

Leadership awareness is the ability of reading a room and being in tune to the tempers of the people in that room. Sound familiar? It’s a skill utilized in effective networking, because leaders influence people. People want to trust strong passion and stable direction. Your employees can sniff out a poser that wants to score a promotion. You can’t influence anyone without understanding the surroundings. Leading yourself is not an easy task or else it is not a task worth pursuing for your development as an effective manager. You can effectively encourage someone else to do what you  when you lead by example. Make your example fueled by passion, honest feedback and awareness to guide your team better.