ICMA Career Compass 108 – Leadership Starts with Self-Awareness

In any leadership position in local government, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by many different projects, meetings, and ever-changing urgent demands. To exert positive leadership in your new role, the key is to step back, carve out some time to be self-reflective, and figure out productive ways to manage yourself and leverage your leadership strengths.

By Dr. Frank Benest | August 3, 2024

I’m a first-time development services director in a suburban city. I was hired from outside theorganization. In this new role, I’m doing my best to be a positive influence. There are lots ofprojects and meetings and many urgent matters to which I must respond. It’s hectic and I’m a bitoverwhelmed.

With all of this activity, I wonder how I can have more of a positive impact. Sometimes my staff responds in a positive way to my leadership; sometimes not so much. As I further develop myself as I leader, I’d like to better stress who I am, what I value, and where I can best make a contribution.

How do I get started?

Ask These Questions to Foster Self-Awareness

The journey toward self-knowledge starts by carving out some quiet time and space to reflect and ask yourself some questions. I reflect when I now take a daily walk in the mid-afternoon as a break from work. When I worked as a city manager, I had a 9/80 schedule and used my alternative Fridays to go to a café, have breakfast, and reflect about the past week or two and think about challenges in the next several weeks. I have a colleague who gets up early on Saturdays before the rest of the
family and reflects upon the past week over coffee. Since we lead hectic lives, it is helpful if we create a ritual to have a quiet time to reflect.

To promote self-reflection, ask yourself some of these powerful questions:

• What strengths did I leverage in the last week?
• How did I show up to lead this week?
• In the last week, what surprised me and what can I learn from it?
• With whom did I really connect?
• What was my useful contribution?
• How did I allow others to flourish?
• How did I give? How did I receive help?
• How did I appropriately reveal myself to others?
• What is one thing I did for which I am thankful?
• What person or situation triggered a poor reaction on my part?
• What is one thing I want to stop doing as a leader?
• What can I do better in the coming week?
• Based on new data or experience, what opinion or belief may I need to change?

One ritual that is of value to some colleagues is to keep a journal. In response to some of the self reflection questions above, you write a few notes every day or once a week and then periodically go
back and review your entries.