23. Look Within: How to Lead with Self Awareness and Vulnerability

Flexibility

Brian Lowery emphasizes the importance of flexibility in leadership, suggesting that a great leader adapts to the needs of their team or organization. He argues that being rigid in one's leadership style is limiting and that experimentation and reflection are crucial for growth. Matt Abrahams supports this view, advocating for turning habits into choices through reflection and experimentation.

A great leader is flexible. You can come to be what you need to be or what your team or organization needs you to be in that moment.

--- Brian Lowery

Lowery also distinguishes between effective and good leadership, noting that while achieving goals is important, it should be aligned with core values 1.

   

Competencies

Lowery's leadership model at Stanford Graduate School of Business highlights five competencies, starting with self-awareness and perspective-taking. He stresses the importance of understanding that one's experience of the world is subjective and that others may perceive the same situation differently. Abrahams appreciates this emphasis on empathy and perspective-taking, which he considers crucial for effective communication.

Understanding that our experience of the world isn't the world as it is, it's the world as we experience it.

--- Brian Lowery

Lowery further explains that context, critical analysis, and decision-making are essential components of leadership, especially in changing environments 2.