One of the fundamentals of leadership is having self-awareness. Positive psychology describes self-awareness as, "the ability to monitor our internal and external world." Key parts of it include understanding your strengths and weaknesses, your thoughts and emotions, and your motivation. 

For a leader self-awareness allows you to have a clear picture of who you are and how you can best lead and respond to situations. Having a high level of self-awareness will help you with your clarity, relationships, productivity, and help you create the right company culture. 

Here are 5 ways to further develop it.

1. Meditation. Meditation is a great way for you to get a clearer picture of who you are. One of the goals in meditation is to be able to understand and work with the mind. This increased clarity doesn't just happen while you are meditating but carries over to the rest of your day.  

2. Self-reflection. This can be done in a journal where you are reflecting on your day or past experiences. For this reflection be as objective and rational as possible. For example, you can reflect on a certain experience that you had or look at how a certain situation triggered a particular emotion. 

3. Get feedback from trusted friends. This is a great source of additional information to help you become more self-aware. A friend may see something that may have been a blind spot to you. With this feedback be open and allow yourselves to fully hear it. Let go of the need to immediately respond and defend yourself. 

4. Have a clear view of what you value and who you are. Take a look at your core values and write these down. Also, look at deeper questions such as your purpose. You can use these values and beliefs in how you are living your life, which will give you more clarity and awareness.

5. Keep a growth mindset. If you are curious and are looking for ways to improve yourself then you will naturally become more aware of yourself as you grow. With this growth mindset, learning new skills will also increase your self-awareness.

A bonus one is to get feedback from surveys about your leadership style. This may be an annual occurrence and would be anonymous from the responders. This may or may not be appropriate for you depending on your work situation. 

It is not an easy thing to be aware of yourself and how you are coming off in the world. As you develop this it is important to not be overly critical of yourself. Instead, allow yourself to make mistakes and show yourself grace. By doing this and using the strategies above your leadership capacities will begin to expand!