Are you aware of the 5 levels of leadership awareness?

​How aware are you of your own leadership, your authenticity, how you connect and communicate, and how you align and shine as a leader?

Because here's the thing: everyone around you is acutely aware of these things. And sometimes - and maybe more often than you would like - they wonder if you see what they see. 
 
Here is the good news, if you become aware of your leadership awareness, you can easily transform yourself as a leader, be aligned, radiant and create the result you want to have in your life.  You will start to lead your life ALIVE.

Leadership awareness is based on self-awareness. Self-awareness is the key cornerstone to emotional intelligence, according to Daniel Goleman. The ability to monitor our emotions and thoughts from moment to moment is key to understanding ourselves better, being at peace with who we are and proactively managing our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.  
 
The first step towards leadership awareness is to understand that you are a leader whether you like it or not, at least in your own life. You need to lead your life ALIVE, unless you allow yourself to sleepwalk trough you life, be depressed, overworked, lonely, frustrated and risk burnout. 

Of course, leadership awareness is about more than just how you feel. It is very much about what you do in response to what you feel, knowing that you always have a choice to be a leader or a a victim.

Your behaviour is what determines your real leadership style. Regardless of the happy thoughts or strategic communications or tough logic going on inside your skull, what you say and do is what determines your leadership style. It's what others experience. And you can't avoid that reality. You can however, be oblivious to it. And, you can choose to manage it. 

Let's take a quick look at the 5 levels of "leadership awareness" and consider how well each might be working (or not) to help you be as inspirational and effective as you can be. 

The first level of leadership awareness is Authenticity

What characterizes you as an authentic leader is the willingness to be in the process of self-invention and humbly tell, revise, and understand your own life experiences and your story.
 
The keys to being authentic are, trust, vulnerability and transparency. Trusting others, yourself and the situation, communicating both your strengths and weaknesses, being aware of that all stories change over time.
 
I would say that it is impossible, to be authentic all the time and in all life situations. As an empathetic human being you will occasionally feel doubtful and weak. 
 
Truth is an important word that comes up all the time for an authentic leader, who will ask ”Who am I and what is the truth about who I am?
 
When you find your authenticity and the truth about who you are, you will find your inner power, and you will gain speed in everything you do and all decisions you need to take.
 
This learning leads us to the second level of leadership awareness, Listening

First you need to recognize that listening involves a more sophisticated mental process than hearing. 
 
Listening is the art of taking in information from other people or yourself, while remaining nonjudgmental and empathetic. It is a good way to acknowledge yourself or the speaker in a way that invites the communication to continue in a constructive way.
 
Listening is a potent force for reducing the feeling of stress and tension for others and yourself. Listening as a way to acknowledge someone often increases self-esteem and builds self-confidence.
 
When you start to practice listening skills you will connect with yourself, others and your environment and create new long lasting healthy relations.
 
The third level of leadership awareness is Intention
 
Being intentional is to be aware of the behaviours and patterns that supports and do not support who you are and how you want to be perceived. It is a powerful way of aligning your desires with your feelings, your thoughts and how you chose to express yourself and be more of you.
 
The challenge with intentionally expressing what is important to you, is to understand that it is not only about giving, you need to allow yourself to receive or your risk burnout.  
 
When you communicate your intentions clearly, you focus on your greatest potential as an ALIVE and inspirational leader. By simply being present to where you are going, your destination, why you are going there, the plan and the finish line, you can motivate yourself and others. Your intentional presence will make you reach your goals with ease and grace.
 
Values are the forth level of leadership awareness 
 
A value arises from an experience, the feeling the value creates and what story you are telling yourself about that experience. The way the story matches your inner reality determines your personal value. You are a printout of all experience in the past. You can also look at your actions as an expression of your values; when you employ your skills and recourses to take a moral stance.
 
You can evaluate the alignment between you and your family, tribe, or friends and organizations behaviors and values; this is the measure of your integrity or your success beyond success.
 
The fifth level of leadership awareness is Energy
 
At this level of leadership awareness you are getting conscious about how to manage your energy. Awareness is considered a prerequisite for consciousness. It refers to that degree of awareness where the physical world no longer obstructs your understanding. It is about being aware of the metaphysical world, where spiritual interactions and learning takes place beyond the tangible experiences. Being conscious has a lot more depth than being merely being aware.
 
The energy you send out around you is like a broadcast and those who do not like your energy will quickly change the station. Those who like your energy will be attracted, so you better be conscious about what signals you are sending out attracting the opportunities you want to have in your life and in your business.
 
To manage energy is a natural skill, that we all have and can develop and it leads us into resonance with others and our selves. Like any other skill it takes practice. Do you feel energetically open or closed? It is all about being conscious about how you are showing up right now. Emotions are energy in motions. It is your energy supporting and attracting or blocking and repelling the right opportunities in to you life.
 
Skillfully managing your energy will attract the right opportunities in your life as an inspirational leader and you will definitely lead your life ALIVE.
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Do you want to learn more about how you can develop your awareness of your leadership with the ALIVE method? Try ALIVE Circle

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