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Find your voice by clarifying your values The first commitment of becoming an effective leader is to find your voice by clarifying your values. Finding your voice refers to developing your own leadership style by understanding who you are as a leader. You have to be self aware before you can effectively lead others. One method to better understand yourself is to ask for feedback. Receiving feedback from a peer can be invaluable to help understand who you are as a leader and co worker. Many times others see you different than you believe you portray yourself. Having their feedback and constantly asking how you can improve will help clarify how others perceive you and how you can become a better leader.
It is important for those you lead to understand what your values are. For that to happen, you also need to understand your own values. Several different methods can be used to help understand what your values are. Writing a tribute to yourself is one effective method. Imagining what you would want others to say about your leadership style will help develop a style you can be proud of. Recognizing other successful leaders and their values is also useful in developing your own values. Along with knowing your values, it is valuable to frequently look back and reflect on those values. Spending 10% of your day in thought, simply reflecting on yourself as a leader is one method to help stay aligned with your values. Continuously auditing yourself as a leader to determine what techniques you have mastered and which ones you still need to learn and practice will help to continuously increase your success as a leader.
From my recent experience, my peer’s perception of who I am does not align with my values and who I believe myself to be. In future organizations, I will strive to clarify my values to myself and continuously ask for feedback to fuel my growth as a leader.