Last week, 75 leaders had the pleasure of hearing Ari Weinzweig, Co-Founder of Zingerman’s, speak about his new book “A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Managing Ourselves” at my Leaders Connect event (Please enjoy the video of his presentation HERE).
Ari emphasized the importance of self-awareness as a key to becoming a great leader. He described how over the years, he has developed a keen sense of himself and how he has helped his employees become self-aware, as well.
Ari described how he has been able to develop his own sense of self over the 30 some years that he has been leading the Zingerman’s Community. Here are some of his key observations:
- Most people live in a state of “un-freedom”, where they are imprisoned by the beliefs of what they “should do”. (One of my mentors, Dr. Albert Ellis, called this “Should-ing on one’s self”)
- Another form of personal imprisonment is emphasizing what one “cannot do”, as if one has no choice in the matter.
- We also limit ourselves by thinking about what is good for us personally rather than what is good for the people we serve in our leadership roles. Ari has adopted the concept of “servant leadership” as a key to the culture of Zingerman’s.
- Once you understand yourself, you can hire people whose values are aligned with your own.
- As a leader of an organization, you are free to create the working conditions which benefit the overall well-being of the employees. This focus on employee well-being naturally leads to a focus of customer well-being.
- It is crucial that through self-awareness, we become aware of what our purpose is in life.
- Once we are clear about who we are, we are free to create a vision of how we want to live our lives.
- One needs to develop routines and processes which enable the continuing development of self-awareness. For Ari, two routines are crucial for his well-being: to journal every morning and to jog every afternoon.
This week, ask yourself, “how much time and energy do I devote to becoming more self-aware?” It is easy to say you do not have the time or energy to do self-awareness activities, but I believe this is a myth. It is an example of a self limiting belief. If you do not have time to devote to understanding yourself better on a regular basis, how can you possibly lead others to become better leaders?
My challenge to you is to commit to a regular process of continuous self-awareness and development. I would love to hear your practices on how you develop self-awareness.