Self Leadership and How to Improve Them

07 December 2022

Self leadership is a skill that must be owned by every individual, not only the leader but you as a worker must also have this skill. The reason is, because without strong self-leadership, you will feel confused and find it difficult to focus on work goals.

However, what is self-leadership? And how do you improve self-leadership skills? Check out more in the following review!

Definition of Self Leadership

What is self-leadership? Quoting the Self Leadership site, self-leadership is a practice when someone intentionally influences their thoughts, feelings, and actions to achieve the desired end goal.

The term self-leadership itself was first used in 1983, by a professor from the United States named Charles Manz. At that time, he defined it as a perspective to influence yourself so as to create self-motivation and find your own direction.

According to the Eagles Leadership Institute (ELI), there are important aspects of self-leadership that you must master, namely:

1. Self Awareness

Self awareness is the ability to acknowledge, understand, and be aware of one's own values, perspectives, strengths, weaknesses, leadership tendencies, and emotional needs.

2. Self Management

Self-management is the ability to maintain and utilize one's passion, ability, emotion, and leadership capacity in decision making.

3. Other Awareness

It is the ability to acknowledge and recognize the ambitions, strengths, weaknesses, potential and needs of others.

4. Other Management

Meanwhile other management is self-expertise to grow and motivate others to develop their potential with the aim of fulfilling organizational goals. 

Benefits of Self Leadership

The ability to lead yourself is needed to achieve goals in the professional and personal world. Here are some of the benefits of self-leadership that you need to know:

1. More Productive and Efficient

Every company usually sees and values employees who have strong self-leadership more, because employees who can lead themselves well will know better what skills the company needs.

Not only that, self-leadership can also help employees manage their time to remain efficient and organized while working, resulting in a positive impact on the individual and the company where they work.

2. Stay Motivated

The next benefit of self-leadership is that it can help you stay motivated and hold fast to responsibility for the actions taken. When facing challenges, you will usually be reminded of the goals or dreams you want to achieve. Until finally you will achieve more than what was previously imagined when you successfully pass the challenge.

3. Build Solid Relationship with Co-Workers

With your dedication to your roles and responsibilities at work, other co-workers respect you. In addition, colleagues will also consider you more to join in certain projects and appreciate your productivity abilities.

4. Inspire Others

Even though you are not a leader, you still need to have strong self-leadership skills to reflect yourself to be proactive and productive, so that you have the opportunity to be notified by your superiors for your hard work. Thus, you will have the opportunity to extend your career path and position.

How to Improve Self-Leadership

After knowing the meaning and benefits of self-leadership, it is undeniable that self-leadership is an important skill that must be owned by every individual. However, how to improve self-leadership skills? The following are ways that can be followed to improve self-leadership skills:

  • Have self-awareness about the goals to be achieved
  • Learn to accept responsibility
  • Ask for feedback and have a mentor
  • Focus on the solution of every problem

Self leadership is a fundamental aspect of leadership skills that every individual needs to have. By mastering and improving these skills, company executives can be directed to become more disciplined and self-controlled individuals in achieving potential organizational goals in the future.

Self leadership is a skill that must be owned by every individual, not only the leader but you as a worker must also have this skill. The reason is, because without strong self-leadership, you will feel confused and find it difficult to focus on work goals.

However, what is self-leadership? And how do you improve self-leadership skills? Check out more in the following review!

Definition of Self Leadership

What is self-leadership? Quoting the Self Leadership site, self-leadership is a practice when someone intentionally influences their thoughts, feelings, and actions to achieve the desired end goal.

The term self-leadership itself was first used in 1983, by a professor from the United States named Charles Manz. At that time, he defined it as a perspective to influence yourself so as to create self-motivation and find your own direction.

According to the Eagles Leadership Institute (ELI), there are important aspects of self-leadership that you must master, namely:

1. Self Awareness

Self awareness is the ability to acknowledge, understand, and be aware of one's own values, perspectives, strengths, weaknesses, leadership tendencies, and emotional needs.

2. Self Management

Self-management is the ability to maintain and utilize one's passion, ability, emotion, and leadership capacity in decision making.

3. Other Awareness

It is the ability to acknowledge and recognize the ambitions, strengths, weaknesses, potential and needs of others.

4. Other Management

Meanwhile other management is self-expertise to grow and motivate others to develop their potential with the aim of fulfilling organizational goals. 

Benefits of Self Leadership

The ability to lead yourself is needed to achieve goals in the professional and personal world. Here are some of the benefits of self-leadership that you need to know:

1. More Productive and Efficient

Every company usually sees and values employees who have strong self-leadership more, because employees who can lead themselves well will know better what skills the company needs.

Not only that, self-leadership can also help employees manage their time to remain efficient and organized while working, resulting in a positive impact on the individual and the company where they work.

2. Stay Motivated

The next benefit of self-leadership is that it can help you stay motivated and hold fast to responsibility for the actions taken. When facing challenges, you will usually be reminded of the goals or dreams you want to achieve. Until finally you will achieve more than what was previously imagined when you successfully pass the challenge.

3. Build Solid Relationship with Co-Workers

With your dedication to your roles and responsibilities at work, other co-workers respect you. In addition, colleagues will also consider you more to join in certain projects and appreciate your productivity abilities.

4. Inspire Others

Even though you are not a leader, you still need to have strong self-leadership skills to reflect yourself to be proactive and productive, so that you have the opportunity to be notified by your superiors for your hard work. Thus, you will have the opportunity to extend your career path and position.

How to Improve Self-Leadership

After knowing the meaning and benefits of self-leadership, it is undeniable that self-leadership is an important skill that must be owned by every individual. However, how to improve self-leadership skills? The following are ways that can be followed to improve self-leadership skills:

  • Have self-awareness about the goals to be achieved
  • Learn to accept responsibility
  • Ask for feedback and have a mentor
  • Focus on the solution of every problem

Self leadership is a fundamental aspect of leadership skills that every individual needs to have. By mastering and improving these skills, company executives can be directed to become more disciplined and self-controlled individuals in achieving potential organizational goals in the future.

Prasetiya Mulya Executive Learning Institute
Prasetiya Mulya Cilandak Campus, Building 2, #2203
Jl. R.A Kartini (TB. Simatupang), Cilandak Barat, Jakarta 12430
Indonesia
Prasetiya Mulya Executive Learning Institute
Prasetiya Mulya Cilandak Campus, Building 2, #2203
Jl. R.A Kartini (TB. Simatupang), Cilandak Barat,
Jakarta 12430
Indonesia