Do you ever have those days when, as a leader, you feel like you’ve lost your compass?

It happens to us all—no one can be a perfect leader 100 percent of the time.

But when you consistently experience struggles or feel lost at the helm, you tend to know it. For example, team dynamics and professional relationships could feel strained. Your people may quit for reasons you don’t quite understand. You may wrestle with hitting your targets as well as sustaining performance, productivity and your client base. Passion for the job may slip a little too often. And along with all this, your emotional intelligence is at risk.

While there are many character assets that leaders need to drive strong teams, healthy cultures and breakthrough results, they cannot do this without practicing greater self-awareness around their leadership habits.

Truly disciplined leaders look truthfully at their leadership strengths and vulnerabilities. Also, among other things, they commit bravely to developing greater emotional intelligence. In fact, this awareness and commitment to emotional intelligence is the most important thing a leader can do because it’s foundational to all other leadership activities. It exercises the growth mindset that embraces change and makes success happen.

So how to you cultivate self-awareness and take action around developing both greater emotional intelligence and leadership acumen?

In our 60+ years coaching leaders and organizations, we’ve found the best places to start is through a 360-degree assessment tool that provides feedback around planning, communication, teamwork, execution and a host of other skills vital to executive and managerial responsibilities. A proven, science-based assessment can give critical insight around your mindset, behaviors and activities. Having this information is gold—you can then set goals to further enrich those areas around which you’re thriving while taking action around opportunities for improvement.

But here’s another thing: Creating accountability around this growth practice is key to consistently accelerating your success. That may mean you turn to a trusted, objective team member, mentor or professional leadership development coach. Or, you may tap the power of an online tracker, such as the soon-to-be-released MAPapp, which provides 24/7 accountability at your fingertips. With accountability, you’re more likely to hit your targets when you have someone or some tool holding you to your goals, checking progress daily, weekly or monthly, providing unbiased feedback/data around your mindset and activities, and helping you develop critical corrective actions.

If you feel you’ve lost hold of your growth-minded mindset, accountability practices or leadership compass, get it back. Contact MAP and let’s get started today!