What is self-regard and why is it an important element of both team building and executive coaching?

Self-regard is the ability to recognise both your strengths and weaknesses and feel good about yourself, despite your weaknesses. It’s associated with feelings of confidence, security, inner strength and self-assuredness.

When it’s present in too high a quantity, it could manifest as arrogance and brashness, while a lack of self-regard could mean a serious lack of confidence and self-esteem. The key is to find the happy medium, where you are conscious of your weaknesses, but confident in your strengths and then help your staff do the same during your corporate team building activities.

Take some time every so often to reflect on both your achievements and failures. It may well be that when you take a step back and look at things objectively, you have actually achieved far more than you realised, while your failures were not nearly as catastrophic as they may have felt at the time.

A third party, such as an executive coach or mentor, can be very helpful here, as they’ll be able to look at what you’ve accomplished with a greater degree of objectivity than you yourself would be able to manage. Furthermore, they’ll always hold you accountable. They may, for instance, expect a weekly email from you detailing at least one thing you’ve accomplished, so you’ll have no choice but to look for the positives! This sort of support should be a key element of any good leadership development programme.

To find out more about how emotional intelligence can transform the way you approach team development, just visit www.highforce.co.uk/freeguide, where you’ll be able to obtain a free copy of my new guide, “15 easy-to-learn, practical and dynamic secrets to increase your success”.