Aaron Huizenga on the power of self-awareness
Each of us is the world’s foremost expert on ourselves. Who knows you better than you know yourself? But how well do you really know yourself in the world that you have influence over?
Everyone can quickly list a couple of strengths and a couple of weaknesses, but how would those items be perceived by others? Would they agree or disagree?
Whatever you listed is one perception of a certain trait or skill, but have you taken the time or invested the money to see where your strengths and weaknesses are in relation to others? There are dozens of tests and evaluations to help show you where you land on certain leadership, personality and risk scales. I have completed a number of these as I find them very intriguing. It is good to know that under certain circumstances one may be predisposed to stop being a democratic leader and quickly shift to an autocratic director. Perhaps you are a centralistic leader, meaning that you consider each situation individually and make your decisions independently of past decisions.
Having a baseline knowledge of your abilities and how they interact with those in your responsibility circle can help you become a better leader and a better person.
Knowing yourself is critical to self-development. Having the ability for non-biased, individual evaluations of your personality and leadership styles will create an outline for areas that you may want to correct, enhance or eliminate. There is a word of caution here, though: Focus on the positives first. We are all going to have some negatives, but the positives will most likely outweigh the negatives. If you are 90 percent positive in the evaluation and 10 percent negative, you still would have gotten an A if we were in school.
Stand on your strengths while being aware of your weaknesses. There is a mentor in my life that reminds me of that often when I tend to only look at areas for improvement.
For reference, here are a few options. Some require professional interpretation and have a cost; others are free and can be done online. And the best part? You don’t have to study for any of them!
⦁ DiSC Assessment
⦁ Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
⦁ Energy Leadership Index (ELI)
⦁ Hogan Assessment Systems (Hogan Personality Inventory and Hogan Development Survey)
Let’s work on your upgrade!
Aaron Huizenga is East Division manager for Lakes Gas in Wisconsin. Reach him at ahuizenga@lakesgas.com.
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