People often share areas of focus or importance in leadership. Some even offer suggestions or tips on how to improve in these areas of leadership. I have noticed that leaders need a quick self-awareness check-in to stay on track to improving as a leader, so I made one.
There are more books published right now on leadership than in any other time period, but are we really building better leaders? Leadership is an action, and while we can be overwhelmed with all of the information provided on leadership, we need a quick way to check-in on ourselves to see how we are doing and where we need to adjust.
I believe leadership comes down to six primary tenets: attitude, communication, vision, tenacity, wisdom, and authenticity. Regardless, any improvement in any one of these areas will lead to improvements in adjacent leadership skills. Like lifting weights, when we work to strengthen our bicep, our hand, wrist, forearm, shoulder, and neck all benefit as well.
Attached below is a matrix I created that you can look at each day to see how you are doing in the six primary areas of leadership. If will serve as a proactive, situational, and post reflection tool to become a better leader.
Review it each day and you will see improvement in your attitude. Your face to face communications and email will improve. You will develop a more positive attitude about work and projects. You'll discover more grit than you knew you had.
In summary, leaders need a compass to know if they are on the right track or not. The attached leadership matrix is in fact that compass. I hope it serves you as well as it has served me.
Please leave a comment below and let me know.
~Kelly Croy
Supporting Well-Being in Education
All Comments
I really appreciate this leadership matrix, Kelly! I can see how it would help aid in reflection, as we are all growing and may find ourselves excelling in some areas and identifying room for growth in others from day to day. I like that it's a single page, so someone could easily print it out and post it in their office as a quick visual reminder of these areas and attributes of leadership.
Thanks for sharing!
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Posted on November 07, 2022
I agree, there are so many leadership books out there. One that I have really enjoyed lately is "leadership and self deception: getting out of the box" by The Arbinger Institute.
Great idea for the matrix self check in, and to recognise that as leaders, we can't be perfect everyday. We are learners as well.