Your Self-Leadership Capacity

For generations we have talked about leadership and the value that healthy leaders bring to an environment, but it wasn’t until the mid-1980s that the term self-leadership became a part of the conversation. 

I believe self-leadership is one of the most overlooked and underrated aspects in the field of leadership development. A team, or organization, can have great designated leaders, but if the members of the group lack self-leadership the team will have a limited growth capacity. 

When I talk about self-leadership I usually divide the concept into two key areas: your self-awareness and your ability to self-manage. Helping others to develop in the area of self-leadership can be a difficult process because it often requires people to go through an inward transformation. This transformation happens when we begin to understand how our words, attitudes, and actions directly impact others. This shift in our awareness allows us to embrace our interconnectedness. 

This spring while watching March Madness, I wasn’t at all surprised to notice that the teams that I work with, who continued to win and advance in the tournament, each had a high degree of self-leadership. While commentators may have talked about the leadership of the coach, or the leadership of particular key players, I had a unique perspective in knowing the self-leadership of each individual player. These players understand that their actions impact others (self-awareness), so they made good decisions (self-management) when their coaches and team leaders were not around. While this concept applies in athletics, it certainly transcends to other industries. 

I once worked with a marketing agency that had a young man who was a very talented graphic designer, but he lacked self-leadership. As a result, he often offended others, damaged relationships, and negatively impacted the overall corporate culture. His limited self-awareness and inability to manage himself cost the company financially, as employees left due to his behavior and damage to their reputation in terms of valuing their corporate culture. 

When we are recruiting people, either for a sports team or an elite company, we have to take the time to assess the self-leadership of each member who is allowed to be a part of the group. The decision to include someone who lacks self-leadership immediately increases the workload for the designated leaders who then become responsible for doing damage control. People without self-leadership become like anchors that restrict a group to a particular place, leaving team leaders to try and carry the dead weight. 

While teams or groups may have formalized or designated team leaders, the truth is every individual is responsible for their own self-leadership. Successful teams are able to move quickly toward their goals when they are made up of individuals who embrace self-awareness and self-management. The depth of collective self-leadership directly impacts the speed and success of a group.

The irony is that many people assume that leadership is about having power over others, but the healthiest leaders I know are intentional about surrounding themselves with individuals who have a high capacity for their own self-leadership.

The next time you find yourself questioning your leader, I want to encourage you to first pause and then assess your own self-leadership. 
 

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