Self-leadership is about recognising opportunities for growth, learning and gaining insights in your own life. Self-leadership is about educating yourself – it is a learning behaviour. How does one become truly self-leading? There are a number of aspects to self-leadership:

Personal values
Intentions (knowing your purpose)
Behaviour
Vision
Skills to recognise opportunities to contribute and to influence others to contribute.

Self-awareness

Knowing yourself is crucial to your own development. Self-awareness is about knowing and understanding your own values, intentions, strengths and weaknesses. It is a deep understanding and commitment to learning and growth.

Lack of awareness and unwillingness to be influenced by others through feedback are two of the main reasons for personal failures. We are unwilling to listen to others’ feedback regarding our flaws. Willingness to listening to feedback from our supporters and our critics is the first step to self-awareness.

Self-awareness through feedback

A very simple, yet effective 360-degree self-assessment is “Stop, Start, Continue.” Ask your manager, peers and direct reports to give you constructive feedback on what you have to stop doing; start doing and continue to do.

Personal vision and intention

Having a clear and compelling vision of what you want and the intention to develop and learn are crucial components of self-leadership. Developing a personal vision requires taking time to deeply reflect upon your own needs and desires.

Self-leaders are always aware of what is required of them by their professions and organisations. A deep understanding of and full participation in the development of your career creates a sense of engagement and purposeful intent without which the work of developing as a self-leader would be meaningless.

A SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) is an ideal way of understanding the evolving environment of your career and discovering the competencies you need to excel.

Continuously striving to develop your character and behaviours is the key to self-leadership. The willingness to develop from within, through a process of self-discovery and learning, creates the most powerful and lasting changes.

By Elsabé Manning

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