A considerable number of people have difficulty accepting responsibility for their actions. Year in and year out, it’s becoming part and parcel of human nature; therefore, we shift the blame from ourselves to others. We spend our days giving permission to other people to lead so that when it’s time to accept responsibility, the blame doesn’t fall on us. In a nutshell, we detest responsibility because we don’t like consequences.
The most important skill for developing self-leadership is a strong sense of self. This self-awareness refers to understanding who you are, what your goals are, what your strengths are, and areas where you can improve. Good self-leaders have a thorough understanding of who they are as individuals and can identify what they want to accomplish. Self-awareness also includes emotional self-awareness, which is the ability to understand your personal moods, emotions, and motivations and how they impact you. Individuals who are self-aware can also conduct an accurate and objective self-assessment, leading to self-confidence and development.
Self-leadership is “the practice of intentionally influencing your thinking, feeling, and actions toward your objectives” (Bryant and Kazan, 2012).
It’s often said that leadership is a cultivated art. It begins with self-leadership. It’s imperative that, as leaders, we care for and nurture our personal lives by devoting more energy to developing our self-leadership skills. Until a person can learn to lead themselves effectively, they will never be able to lead others.
Leaders who lack the ability to restrain their emotions, desires, or impulses and who become unusually critical lack effective self-leadership skills. In this light, when you truly know yourself as a leader—your strengths and weaknesses—you will appreciate others and constantly control your emotions. There are enormous benefits and key aspects of self-leadership. Let’s delve into this:
To begin with, self-leaders are more likely to have positive feelings about their jobs since they are conscious of themselves, their personalities, motivations, and competencies.
Then again, self-leaders are more likely to perform at high levels, endorse their organizations to others, remain with their organizations, and act as good organizational citizens.
Furthermore, self-leaders tend to have long-term or lasting relative importance for life and success because they are always in for the long haul. Unless leaders have a keen sense of self-leadership, they cannot stay focused on what’s relevant.
Subsequently, only leaders who practice consistent self-leadership provide coaching and encouragement to others. Self-leaders uplift the downtrodden, the weak, and the weary.
In conclusion, effective self-leadership training can help individuals realize their full potential by building on strengths and altering attitudes, habits, and behaviours to experience self-motivation.
Self-leadership is not about controlling people or bossing them around. It’s about intentionally taking charge of and creating your desired life. It’s about setting goals for yourself and influencing your emotions and behaviour to reach them. It’s about leading by example.
The point at issue is: who do you think you are?
About the author ✍️:
Joyce Badu Danquah is a seasoned finance, commercial and credit professional with an MBA in Business Management from Carolina University in North Carolina, USA.
She is currently pursuing her PhD in Organizational Leadership and Management at the same institution (Carolina University 🇺🇸).
