We often think of leadership in the confines of providing direction; defining goals, developing a strategy, and achieving results; and helping others be their best professional selves.
What about our best selves? What about directing our own life?
As a leader, it is critical to encourage and motivate others, but it’s equally important to inspire and motivate yourself. Personal leadership strategies can help you plot life’s course, so you end up where you want to be on a multitude of levels – personally, professionally, financially, creatively, etc.
In Building Personal Leadership, Joe Farcht defines personal leadership as “the ability and desire to crystallize your thinking and to establish a specific direction and destination for your own life. It includes the courage, choice, and commitment to move in that direction by taking committed and determined action to acquire, accomplish, or become whatever you visualize for your future.”
The benefits of personal leadership are boundless and will help you both personally and professionally.
First, those with well-developed self leadership skills have better insight into how their behavior impacts results. Imagine you are a corporate lawyer using legal jargon to explain the ramifications of a recent lawsuit to a room full of executives. You may find that a few people in the room have trouble following your explanation. A lawyer with more adept personal leadership skills will notice this lapse and use more common language.
Second, they are committed and driven. Sometimes your goals will be met with ease and other times you may face, what seem like, insurmountable obstacles. Great leaders find a way to keep going.
Finally, they are actionable and productive. They understand the importance of a task and work hard to see it through. Idle hands are the devil’s playground.
So how can you improve and nurture your personal development skills?
Be accountable.
Accountability is at the core of personal leadership. Set your goals, make a plan to get there, and STICK TO THE PLAN. You are the leader of your own life, whether your personal development skills are good or bad. Only you can decide where you end up.
Practice personal reflection.
Examine how your actions have impacted people, projects, and results.
Manage your time.
Develop successful time management, so you can achieve more in less time.
Maintain a leader’s mindset.
Project a positive, confident attitude that supports action.
Be a life-long learner.
Don’t ever stop learning new things. These will help you as you navigate your plan to a successful you.
What is your first step to personal leadership?
It may be the Leader’s Mastermind. The Mastermind allows you to meet with leaders like you, discuss your business and learn from an expert. Learn more here.