So often people think they are prepared for a leadership role and have yet to master leading themselves. Truthfully, successfully leading others requires the successful leadership of oneself. But how does leading yourself work? Leading yourself well is more than taking control of your own actions. If I were to ask myself, how can I lead myself?, there are 11 areas of focus to work on, starting with how I manage myself.
Work on Self-Management
Sure, self-management involves managing your own actions (and reactions), but it is more than that. Self-management requires the management of time, emotions, and thinking. Learning how to best manage your time starts with knowing how much time you have and how many tasks need to complete. It involves prioritizing and allocating enough time to complete each task without overwhelming yourself or your day.
Self-management also includes managing your emotions. If you cannot get a hold of your feelings, leading other people with just as many feelings will be especially difficult. Discovering ways to name your emotions and feel them without reacting in response to them is an essential leadership skill that must be mastered.
Managing your thinking is a skill that many consider much more difficult. You might believe that you have no control over your thoughts. Truthfully, this idea is false. For instance, when you cannot stop thinking about a particular topic, jot it down and set aside time to think about it later. You will be far more productive by thinking about what is needed in the current moment.
How Can I Lead Myself? Know Your Values
What is most important to you? A relatively new concept known as ‘Top Card’ can help you determine your values and priorities. Imagine a deck of cards representing everything that matters to you. Essentially, core values are integrity, respect, teamwork, safety, creativity, commitment, excellence, and more. Your most important value is your top card. Beneath that are other values that you hold. Labeling each of your cards allows you to determine which values are most vital to you.
By naming your values, you are more apt to adhere to them. When leading oneself, keeping your values in check is essential to doing it well. Forgetting or skipping over your values just this once will do nothing to better yourself as a person or a leader.
Improve Your Decision-Making Process
In his recent book The Self-Aware Leader, John C. Maxwell pointed out the Pareto Principle, which states that 20% of your actions cause 80% of your results. Applying this principle to decision-making means that 80% of decisions can be made with 20% of the information. To improve your decision-making process, start by practicing faster decision-making.
Good decisions also involve understanding your plans for the future, identifying potential consequences, and obtaining feedback from previous decisions. Creating a fully functional system for decision-making can be crucial to the success of leading yourself.
Keep a Positive Mindset
Have you ever had the desire to follow a leader with a negative outlook? No, of course not! Then why would you attempt to lead yourself with negativity as your mindset? If you currently lean toward the negative side of things, there are a few tricks to help you get back on track. Start with some positive self-talk. Remind yourself what you’re good at. Have some humor about the things you’re not so good at. Surround yourself with other positive people and try to avoid negativity when possible, especially when you’re first making the mindset change.
Other ways that might help you to see the good in things include:
- Keep a gratitude journal
- Look for the positive in every situation
- Practice self-care
- Get natural mood-boosting hormones through exercise
Aim to keep a positive mindset; you may be surprised at the changes you experience in your life and in leading yourself. Answering ‘how can I lead myself?’ requires this outlook, too.
Be Willing to Admit Mistakes
Refusing to admit to mistakes made is throwing a veil over an issue and attempting to move past it, likely unsuccessfully. The ability to admit your mistakes is a sign of a transparent and trustworthy leader. Leading yourself well requires you to admit your mistakes to yourself, as well as others. Take responsibility for the things you did wrong. Not only will others see this and appreciate your honesty, but you will also provide yourself with more significant opportunities for growth.
How can I lead myself? Be wrong sometimes.
Make Small Changes that Stick
How often do you make a resolution that lasts the year? For most people, it’s never. The gym membership goes unused beyond January, you want to get organized but find your home cluttered a few weeks in, or you wanted to pay off that credit card but the unexpected April sale made you change your mind. It’s a typical battle to resolve to do something and be unable to adhere to the plan. What works in creating habits that stick? James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, says habits are more manageable when you start small.
Small changes are far easier to stick to than huge life changes. Do one pushup a day instead of purchasing a gym membership – that one pushup might turn into five, then ten, then 50 by the time the year has ended. By making small changes that add up over time, you will become more disciplined and in more control of your actions, thus leading yourself in the right direction.
Focus on Personal Growth
Think back to ten years ago. Today, are you the exact same person you were then? I know I’m not! Personal growth is vital to leading oneself because of the innovation and betterment required to be successful in this world. Look at formerly successful organizations that failed due to a lack of growth or change: Kodak, Blackberry, and Blockbuster. These organizations failed to adapt and grow and eventually closed up shop. Don’t let a lack of personal growth keep you in the past. Grow with intent, and do it now.
How can I lead myself? Grow, grow, grow!
Be Aware of Strengths and Weaknesses – How Can I Lead Myself?
Self-awareness is a popular topic because so many people believe themselves to be self-aware yet lack actual self-awareness. While self-awareness requires more than an understanding of your strengths and weaknesses, knowing what you are good at and not so good at is vital. Awareness of these things is a great starting point to becoming aware of yourself.
What do you do with the knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses? You work hard to improve your strengths and acknowledge that your weaknesses are just that. While you can work on your weaknesses to improve, some experts believe this to be a waste. For example, if you were to develop your strengths, which were previously ranked at a 7/10, you might get it to a 9/10. However, if you were to spend time improving your weaknesses, you could give your 2/10 a boost to 4/10. It would still be a weakness.
Although you may not be able to delegate your weak points to someone else, you must be transparent about your weaknesses. Sharing your awareness with others can help you to assist the team in your strongest ways.
Develop a Quality Inner Circle
You might be the kind of person that gets along with everyone. Although that is a great personality trait, it is essential to remember that who you spend the most time with is likely how you’ll end up. If you spend most of your time with someone negative, you may find that you are becoming a negative thinker, as well. On the other hand, spending time with someone that is always positive can have a significant impact on the way you think.
When creating an inner circle, consider what you want your future to look like. Perhaps you have a clear vision of your life in 5 years. Include someone that is living a life close to that vision. This does not mean that you should cut out anyone that is not doing well; this means that those you trust most and communicate with most regularly should be in a mentorship role for you.
Give Yourself Grace
No one is perfect. Leave behind the stress of perfectionism and allow yourself to make mistakes. When you do, have a little grace. As the saying goes, there’s no use crying over spilled milk! If a mistake has occurred, you cannot go back in time and change it. You can, however, learn from the mistake and avoid beating yourself up.
How can I lead myself? Grace is key.
Daily Reflections are Critical
How can you improve if you fail to think about everything that was accomplished or missed out on throughout the day? Whether you take ten minutes or an hour, going over your day before you go to bed can help you improve for the following day. Did you spend too much time on social media? Reflecting on why or what you could have done instead may be helpful to you. Did you crush your goals and conquer productivity today? Reflecting on your successes can act as inspiration for tomorrow.
Daily reflections are a great way to become more self-aware. The value is unsurmountable. Take those few extra minutes to significantly improve your day-to-day life. Doing so can create in you a whole new kind of leader.
So, how can I lead myself? Personal development and positivity. Without those, leading yourself becomes improbable.
If you think you weren’t born to be a leader – you’re right! Check out this post so you can learn to be a leader.