[sws_picture_frame3 src=”http://clearconceptinc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/iStock_000004376103XSmall.jpg” title=”” alt=”” align=”sws_frame_left” lightbox=”” album=”album” video=””] [/sws_picture_frame3] I spent the weekend moving my home office from the basement to a spare bedroom. Now I’ll be completely honest, I would have much preferred to be out golfing. But in the end, it was a great process.

As I was clearing out some stuff and assessing whether I needed to hold onto other things, it got me thinking about my leadership skills. The more papers I sorted, the more I thought about my skills.

Just like our stuff, which tends to pile up and get a bit outdated, our skills often benefit from a tweak here and there. It occurred to me while I was knee deep into ‘Spring Cleaning’ that I should be looking at my leadership skills at the same time. What should I keep? What can I toss? And what should I fix?

Leadership is a multi-faceted concept, so I broke my personal assessment down based on the Proactive Manager model:

Principles: What are my driving principles? Am I consistently referring to these with all decisions and actions? Do my communications support my principles?

Personal Productivity: Am I focused on the right priorities? Are my systems good enough to help me achieve my goals? Am I allocating my time effectively across my different goals? Am I focused?

Process: Am I effectively enabling and leveraging the talents of my colleagues? Am I providing sufficient support? Am I allowing them to take full responsibility for their work? Am I providing timely, balanced and clear feedback?

People: Am I focused on developing intentional relationships with my colleagues? Am I listening and following-up? Is my team engaged?

After going through this process, I noted several things that I liked and a few things that I wanted to tweak. Most importantly, I walked away feeling more organized and grounded as a leader. It felt a lot like breathing in that good spring air.

The change of season is always a good time to step back and reflect or consider our path. With that said, there are lots of other times that can work for a process like this. Maybe it’s after your busy season. Maybe it’s at the end of the year. Whenever it is, make sure not to miss this important reflection period.