What is Self-Leadership?
Self-Leadership represents the cornerstone of being able to fully function as a thriving, self-determining individual.
A working definition from Bryant and Kazan (2012) describes it as follows:
“Self-Leadership is the practice of intentionally influencing your thinking, feeling and actions towards your objective/s.”
Bryant and Kazan’s definition encompasses:
- Creation of a powerful intention statement for your life and work.
- Development of self-awareness, so that you have insight into your underlying motivations; understand how and why you react to people and situations; and realize the potential for self-motivation and self-management that such knowledge can create.
- Growth of self-confidence, whereby you can develop trust in your own judgment, thinking and decision-making. Building self-confidence in a context of self-awareness, allows individuals to maintain curiosity and openness, without the defenses of narrow-mindedness and arrogance.
- Promotion of self-efficacy, which is rooted in resilience and enhances your skill to optimally function in different situations.
- Cultivation of a powerful vision and the skills needed to influence those around you and achieve the impact that you desire in the world.
Self-leadership is not about what level of job that you are aspiring to.
It is simply a commitment to the freedom to be the master of your own destiny.
Mastering others is strength.
Mastering yourself is true power.
Lao-Tzu