Know yourself and seek self-improvement

This principle of leadership is developed through the use of leadership traits. Evaluate yourself using the leadership traits to determine your strengths and weaknesses. Work to improve your weaknesses and use your strengths.

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Back to the universal principles

Calibration

Under, just right, over.

SituationUnderJust RightOver
A look at how you leadSkips it, or writes only the strengths.Names a strength you use and a weakness that still shows up, specifically enough to act.Produces a long inventory and changes nothing.
Asking for a plain readAsks people who will praise you, or does not ask.Asks someone who will tell you the truth, and writes down one change.Collects so much feedback that you never pick a next step.
A strength the work needsHides it so you do not look like you are showing off.Puts the strength on the work that needs it.Uses the same strength on every problem, including the ones it does not fit.
A weakness that is already costing the teamNames it once and leaves it.Picks one weakness and a definite plan, then checks whether the next month looks different.Tries to fix every weakness at once and does none of them.
Someone told you how you come acrossDefends the story you already had about yourself.Takes the part that is true and says what you will change.Rewrites your whole style after one comment, including the parts that already work.
A plan that never startsSays you will improve and never picks a first step.Puts a first step on the calendar and treats a miss of that step as a miss.Builds a development plan so large that this week's work is the thing that slips.

Further reading

Sources and essays on this principle.

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