What exactly is Self-Leadership?

June 01, 2023

WEEKLY SERIES ON SELF-LEADERSHIP.

Week One

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate yourself on the ability to lead yourself?

"First, know thyself" is an ancient Greek saying chiseled into the walls of the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo. Therefore, if you are going to be an effective leader, the first essential insight is to understand who you are, your leadership brand, and your preferred style of behavior. Leading yourself is the first step towards leading others. Most people miss this point. They want to jump into leadership because they are managers or have people reporting to them without laying the proper foundation, so they mangle the job. If you can't lead yourself, you can't lead others. We have no business leading others into greatness if our lives are a trainwreck that we are NOT ready to do anything about. Face whatever personal issues you have been avoiding head-on and clean up on all fronts.

You have a responsibility to manage yourself. Sometimes people say, "Well, my boss is grumpy and cranky and doesn't appreciate me." One key idea is that people don't leave companies; they leave the people they worked with. And I am sure you have heard this saying before. By the way, it isn't my idea. That is what is out there. However, the point of lead or lead thyself is that you are responsible for managing your Mindset, Heartset, Healthset, and Soulset.

Whenever you blame your boss, your husband, your wife, your past, your children, the economy, your nationality, etc., you are giving away your power to be the change you want to see, to use the words of Mahatma Gandhi. ABR, absolute responsibility, leap, the VICTIM to LEADER leap. Victims give away their power to conditions, and leaders roll up their sleeves and say, "If it is going to be, it is up to me what is going on in my life."

You do not give people the right to rent a one-room apartment (what we in my country Nigeria call FACE ME, I SLAP YOU) in your head. You do not give people the keys to your life to decide what to do with it at any time.

You must determine how to manage your internal psychology and physiology to fireproof your Mindset, bulletproof your Heartset, calibrate your Healthset, and develop your Soulset to become this force of nature, the person you should be, the person with such a strong character that no matter what happens in the world, you don't get activated and don't feel insecure even if someone else is winning. You don't get knocked off your A-Game if things get bad. You are not a victim; YOU are a leader.

What, then, is Self-Leadership?

Self-Leadership can be defined as "the practice of intentionally influencing your thinking, feeling, and actions toward your objective/s." It is having a developed sense of who you are, what you can do, where you are going coupled with the ability to influence your communication, emotions, and behavior on the way to getting there." (Bryant, Kazan 2012)

Self-leadership is about YOU taking responsibility for utilizing your unique talents effectively to deliver the results that you want to achieve. It involves gaining control over yourself, your emotions, and your motivations. Another way to look at it is Self-leadership is utilizing your strengths to achieve the desired results.

Peter F. Drucker once said, "Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves – their strengths, values, and how they best perform."

I LEAVE YOU WITH THIS QUESTION; DO YOU KNOW THY SELF?

"Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power." - Lao Tzu

Until I come your way again next week on more guide to leading thy self.


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Shady Fares
02/06/2023 03:18 PM
Great blog!
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