Healthy Leaders, Healthy Teams: Who You Are Is How You Lead — Self-Knowledge as a Pillar of Your Personal Leadership Journey

Healthy Leaders, Healthy Teams — Who You Are Is How You Lead: Self-Knowledge as a Pillar of Your Personal Leadership Journey

Have you ever felt like you were not being seen for who you truly are?

In this third solo episode of the Healthy Leaders, Healthy Teams series, Ruth explores why being confident in who you are — and who you are not — is a key quality of leadership, and how getting to know who you are at your core can become a pillar of growth on your personal leadership journey.

Perhaps you feel overlooked or underestimated at work, or that your values no longer fit your organisation. Or perhaps you're in transition, and asking yourself what you really want. Whatever your situation, knowing who you are allows you to step out of your comfort zone without losing your sense of integrity. And as you do that, you create the conditions for those you lead to do the same.

Ruth introduces the idea of your Core Self — who you are at your best — as three overlapping circles: your strengths, your values, and your personality. At the centre, where they meet, is your purpose: what you bring to the world. Getting to know your Core Self is part of the inner work of leadership — the work of knowing and leading yourself before leading others.

She looks back at Dr Michelle Wright's story from the last episode through this lens, and at how Michelle’s clarity about who she was, and who she was not, helped her navigate a major career transition.

Ruth then turns to leadership more broadly. Knowing who you are and what you stand for is a key part of healthy leadership — creating a secure base from which you, and the people on your team, can stretch outside your comfort zone. She shares the story of a General Manager at Procter & Gamble whose leadership gave her a secure base to grow.

A reflection exercise to come back to

There is a guided reflection in the middle of the episode [starting at 08:07].

Ruth invites you to reflect on a situation of resonance with who you are, and one of dissonance — and to get curious about which of your strengths, values and personality traits are expressed, or held back, in each. You may want to re-listen to this part and journal on it in a quiet moment.

Coming up next in Healthy Leaders, Healthy Teams — after next month's leadership interview — Ruth looks at the other side of self-knowledge: how you show up under pressure and criticism.

If you'd like some support discovering more about your strengths, values and personality, and how they can guide your personal leadership journey, you can book a curiosity call at yourpathtosuccess.ch/book-appointment

Ruth Kearns Wollmann is an ICF-accredited professional coach and leadership development facilitator with a background as a cognitive psychologist, business executive and organisational leader in corporate and non-profit organisations.

She believes the leaders who make the greatest impact are those who lead from a centred, integrated place — understanding their own patterns, hopes and fears deeply enough to respond rather than react under pressure.

Ruth partners with established and emerging leaders ready to lead differently: breaking through their own ceiling, becoming a secure base for others, and making their greatest impact yet from a place of strength, authenticity and purpose.

To find out more about Ruth's work with individuals and organisations, visit yourpathtosuccess.ch

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