The Psychology of Mastering Leadership: 3 Essential Skills for Leaders

Mastering leadership psychology is crucial for your professional development. What got you here won’t get you there. Whether you’re starting out, changing jobs mid-career or completing your last decade of work, leadership success depends on how well you manage yourself and are in relationship with others.

Leadership success depends on knowing, appreciating and accepting who you are. Learning a few basics can help you become a better leader.

In my sessions coaching leaders and executives, we spend a lot of time reviewing strengths and weaknesses. While most people are aware of their deficits, fewer know their strengths and focus on them. We have a negativity bias. As a way of protection we try to ignore or hide our deficits. We hope others won’t notice our shortfalls. Instead, successful leaders are fully aware of their traits and capabilities and develop ways to manage their weaknesses and leverage their strengths. You can play to these strengths and avoid their inherent traps with sufficient self-knowledge and build a team whose strengths complement yours.

As you ascend to positions of greater power and responsibility, the best leaders increasingly rely on social and emotional intelligence.

A rapidly changing business environment will pose numerous challenges:

• An increased workload as markets become more complex
• Situations that require political savvy and exemplary interpersonal skills
• Time and energy management
• Unprecedented pressure and stressors
• An increasingly diverse global workforce
• Rapidly evolving products and services
• Unpredictable market changes
• Technological advances

Whether you work in manufacturing, retail or services, your understanding of relationship and people will drive optimal business outcomes.

In this series of blog posts, I will examine three essential psychology skills that every leader must master:

• Knowing and managing yourself
• Leading others through engagement
• Managing emotions in the workplace

What about you? Are you fully aware of your strengths and masterfully leverage them? I’d love to hear from you.