5 reasons leadership training should be for all employees
Regardless of the myth that "leaders are born and not created," skills can be taught and improved through leadership training. Developi...
Self-leadership is about choosing who we are, what we do, and who we become. It doesn’t advocate for a selfish approach to get what we want at any costs. It also recognizes that things do not always come to us easily but that our environment is created through us making choices and creating opportunities and circumstances.
The world, with its reliance on technology and inter-dependent economies, has become a place that leverages knowledge, meaning the things we learn can become obsolete very quickly. What remains constant is that we have to manage ourselves effectively within these complexities and ongoing evolution in order to overcome obstacles, to renew and refresh ourselves, and to fully participate in our own lives.
Self-leadership is not about managing others, although self-leaders make great managers and leaders. The focus is not on leading others, but rather about leading yourself.
In a typical look at external leadership, your manager gives you directions, sets expectations, and tells you when something is due. If they are a consultative manager, they may ask you how you would like to get the work done, while still defining what the end result will be. A self-leader scans their own environment, recognizes what they could be doing, and does it.
Let’s say that a supervisor says to you that sales are down and you need to increase your results by 10% in the next quarter. A consultative supervisor would probably ask you how you could achieve those results. The self-leader sees that sales are down and devises a plan of action without the supervisor saying anything.
Self-leaders share several key characteristics, which we have organized in a model of four pillars.
Self-leadership puts together taking responsibility for our outcomes, setting direction for our lives, and having tools to manage priorities. Self-leaders work at all levels of an organization. They are front-line workers in every possible role, middle managers, and CEOs. Self-leaders like Walt Disney and Wayne Gretzky worked hard to achieve their dreams without using the term self-leadership. However, they have clearly demonstrated that being in control of their behavior and results, focus, practice, and learning were necessary to achieve their goals.
Self-leadership requires a commitment from individuals to decide what they want from life and to do what’s necessary to get the results they want. This course will help participants internalize the four pillars of self-leadership and to make meaningful, empowered choices while taking action to get where they want to go.