Self-Leadership

Based on “The Ultimate Leadership Task: Self-Leadership” by Richard J. Leider, in

The Leader of the Future: New visions, Strategies, and Practices for the Next Era, F.
Hesselbein, M. Goldsmith and R. Beckhard, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco,
1996
 Look within ourselves for
leadership guidance
 “Know thyself” Thales
 “To thine own self be true” William
Shakespeare
 “You must be the change you wish to see in
the world” Mahatma Gandhi
 Questions

 In the context of real change, what

responsibilities do leaders have to their
followers?
 How can they generate energy and
encourage superior performance?
 How can they develop effective
relationships?
 Answer

 They can do it only through self-leadership

 All change is self-change

 People cannot be reengineered

 Individuals cannot be empowered by
organizations
 Leaders cannot empower people to be
innovative or courageous
 People have difficulty coping with change

 Organizations and leaders have discovered

that “the soft stuff is the hard stuff” in
creating real change, i.e. the human side of
leading change is, as if not, more important
than the technical or financial issues
 Remember

 All change is self-change and involves “the soft

stuff”- it cannot be done in a nice and tidy manner
 Self-change involves emotions and requires helping
people to help themselves
 Leaders must hear people with “that soft stuff” –
their hearts
 Listening is the core of the change process
Heart = hear and art

the core of leadership art

 Remember

 Change requires self-leadership

 Leaders must look within themselves to
decide what they want, what they value, and
where they stand
 Individual choice remains the key to creating
high-performance teams – a great team
cannot be build with a collection of passive
members
 Real change

 Depends on the motivation and self-

leadership of both leaders and followers
 Everyone’s motivation and talents must be
reignited to sustain any change effort
 Support systems must be in place to use them
effectively in the organization
 YOU, Inc. : The new career
reality
 People work for themselves first
and their organizations second in
today’s reengineered
organizations
 They feel they don’t know
where they belong anymore
 Their work which they used to
love becomes drudgery
 They do twice as much but
enjoy it half as much
 They do not voice complaints
because they feel vulnerable
 They feel little loyalty to
corporate authority yet want to
contribute their talents
 Leaders must recognize this shift
to YOU, Inc. and build upon it
 Requires a new “career
covenant” where leaders develop
followers and help them master
their skills
 Self-Leadership

 The essence of leadership

 The core around which the new career
covenant is built
 Consists of personal purpose, values, vision,
and courage
 Self-Leadership

 Based on knowing yourself and seeking

reliable counsel
 Taking stock of your personal attributes that
embrace or resist change
 Without understanding the purpose that
ignites them, the vision that motivates them
to lead, the values that empower them,
leaders cannot make courageous choices
 Self-Leadership

 The essence of all individual, team and

organizational change
 Visionary leadership demands courage
 Team unity means individual enrolment
 Organizational change demand self-change
 Self-Leadership

 The ultimate leadership challenge – a

survival skill
 Leaders

 Must incorporate self-leadership through all

the change philosophies, processes,
programmes and tools
 Must give adequate time and effort on self-
leadership, and “walk their talk”
 Must continually refer to their personal
purpose, values, vision and courage
Twenty Tips for Self-Leadership
 1. The quality and depth of leadership reflects in the
relationships with colleagues and followers. Leaders
must be clear about their values since they reveal what
they really are as leaders.

Tip
 Recognize your stress level and watch for signs –
forgetfulness, chronic fatigue, sleeplessness, appetite,
increased cold, headaches or lower back pain, withdrawal
from relationships or mood swings
 Ask your family and friends if they notice changes in you
 2. We do have choices and the willingness to exercise
our choices is the source of leadership energy. We are
not powerless.

Tip
 Gain control where you can
 Look for areas where you can take charge
 Schedule time for exercise or to attend family events
 3. Recognize our addictions to find out if we are true to
our essence or living in a self-imposed prison, driven
by others’ or organization’s expectations.

Tip
 Balance your life style
 Think of other areas which you would like to develop
besides your work – your mind? body? spirit?
 Perfectionists, idealists or workaholics can never truly
please themselves
 4. Real change comes from changing our mental maps;
high energy comes from a clear and passionate
personal vision.

Tip
 Take a daily time off
 Allow at least 15 minutes a day to reflect on the big picture
and set or revise priorities according to it
 5. Leadership assessment is best done on the basis of
our own complete records of what we do rather than
anybody else’s partial, incomplete records.

Tip
 Do what you love
 We may burn up by doing what we love, but we will not
burn out or rust out
 Get career counselling
 You may need to reinvent your job
 6. Take inventory of our leadership talents to profit in
the future the lessons from the past.

Tip
 Examine your job
 Note everything you naturally love and everything you
intensely dislike doing at work
 Ask yourself honestly,”How much time do I spend doing
what I naturally love to do?”
 Then focus on your strengths and manage your weaknesses
 7. Decide personally by which criteria we want our
leadership legacy measured.

Tip
 Renew a relationship with a mentor or coach
 Ask yourself, “Who are my teachers today?” ”Who is the
first person I would call for leadership advice?”
 8. Reinventing ourselves is a lifelong and continuous
learning process; we must be comfortable with the
reality that satisfaction always lead to dissatisfaction.

Tip
 Challenge yourself to get out of your comfort zone
 Pursue a non-leadership role in a professional or community
organization
 Undertake a new learning experience outside of your
element
 Risk and challenge can recharge your batteries
 9. Establish solid support systems that can carry us
through the vagaries of change.

Tip
 Who are the people whose wisdom and personal counsel
you value?
 Who would you select to sit on the advisory team for your
personal life work and leadership?
 10. Take risks to initiate courageous conversations that
will keep us in honest and creative face-to-face
dialogue with our colleagues and followers.

Tip
 Quit doing something
 Do not overcommit yourself
 Saying no and meaning it will reduce your stress and give
you a sense of control
 Stop participating in one committee or assignment
 11. Develop a personal Plan B before successfully
achieving Plan A

Tip
 Design a written Plan B
 What would you do if you lose your job tomorrow and had
for look for customers?
 What exactly would you do that people would pay money
for?
 12. Do not play “victim” to external forces; take
control of your calendars.

Tip
 Picture your ideal week and sketch it out
 What does it look like?
 “Would you sacrifice a day’s pay for an extra day off each
week?”
 13. First make the important life decisions that are the
raw materials of career decisions.

Tip
 Schedule a “heart check up”
 When was the last time you had a “life priorities”
conversations?
 Think about your friendships
 When was the last time you asked someone how he or she
was and stopped long enough to hear the answer?
 Do you and your partner talk?
 14. Blend your priorities and trade-offs in our personal
life and work are you risk wasting the most valuable
currency – time.

Tip
 Envision yourself ten years from now
 Discuss your ideal career and life scenario with someone
close to you
 15. Having a clear sense of personal purpose creates
success with fulfilment; a written personal purpose
reduces anxiety in times of change

Tip
 Ask the big question, i.e., life’s purpose
 “Why do I get up in the morning?”
 16. Live with clear intention and make consistent
contact with a higher power greater than ourselves.

Tip
 Find a listening point
 Figure out what we want to be first instead of spending a lot
of time running around trying to figure out what to do
 Take regular spirit breaks
 Give you spiritual core space to grow
 17. Leading from a clear, personal sense of purpose
creates courage; real courage attracts real followers.

Tip
 How we spend our time defines how we live and lead
 Are you spending time with the courageous “change
champions” in your organization?
 Do your meeting agendas allow time for “courageous
conversations”?
 18. The key to high performance is integrity – doing
little things consistently. Leadership integrity is built
or destroyed by small day-to-day things that becomes a
pattern.

Tip
 Practice stress management techniques
 One simple technique – leave 15 minutes early for an
appointment so that you won’t have to rush
 19. Overstress comes mainly from reactive living;
stress can break us down or it can energize us; the
difference is in how we perceive it.

Tip
 Self-leadership is self-care
 Be honest with yourself
 How healthy are you?
 Do you have the energy and vitality you need?
 Schedule a physical check up soon
 20. People are attracted to what is celebrated;
celebrate the many faces of celebration.

Tip
 Lighten up
 And find your smile if you have lost it
 Notice the “baby steps” toward change by phoning,writing
notes and affirming your progress all year long