3 Tips for Developing Self Leadership

Self-leadership aligns your actions and goals. These tips can help you lead yourself and others skill fully. Plus, a self-leading checklist.

Authored by: iClick2Learn Team

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3 Tips for Developing Self Leadership

When we think of a great leader, many qualities come to mind: patience, vision, determination, discipline. But what is self-leadership, and how does it differ from leadership in general?

Self-leadership is the practice of aligning your thoughts, feelings, and actions with your goals. Leading yourself starts with a good understanding of who you are, where you’re going, and what you want to achieve along the way.

Benefits of Self Leadership

All leadership begins with self-leadership. That means it’s one of the most important skills you can develop. Self-awareness and self-leadership have many benefits for yourself and those around you:

Encourages others to follow your lead
Builds trust and connection with your peers
Increases productivity and efficiency
Holds you accountable
Keeps you motivated and focused

Leading by example is often considered the best way to teach. Self-leadership can help you realise personal goals and guide others down a positive path. If you are a not-for-profit volunteer or employee, self-leadership can inspire those around you and advance your organisation’s mission/purpose.

Tips for Developing Self Leadership

Self-leadership sounds like a given. But it’s easy to lose track of self-regulation and self-awareness in a fast-paced, hectic world. It’s helpful to remember that we are all works in progress as we hone our self-leadership skills.

The following tips can help:

Know yourself. Write down everything you know about your personality, skills, talents, goals, strengths, weaknesses, and values. Regularly reflecting on these things will empower you to make wise decisions and clarify your goals.
Self-monitor. Monitor yourself and think about your performance and behaviour. Consider how your actions align with your goals. Make adjustments as necessary, keeping in mind that we are all growing all the time. Our behaviour and personalities are not fixed.
Set goals. The best way to monitor your self-leadership skills is to see them in action. Review progress on your goal(s) regularly. It can be helpful to keep a journal where you note progress, setbacks, challenges, and gains. An account of your journey can help you identify habits, behaviours, or attitudes that might benefit from a change.

A self-leadership checklist [link to tool] can get you started on the path to solid self-knowledge and self-management. Give yourself plenty of time to answer the questions thoughtfully.

Look back over your checklist once a week, and don’t be afraid to make additions or changes. The more you examine yourself, the more your goals, ambitions, and priorities might shift or evolve. This is all part of healthy self-leadership.

Developing Self Leadership: Conclusion

Strong self-leadership skills will benefit your personal life and your not-for-profit. As you learn to lead yourself well, you will feel better positioned to set an excellent example for others.

Speaking of leadership–if you’re a volunteer supervisor or are thinking of becoming one, you’ll want to check out our video on why volunteer coordinators and supervisors are essential in not-for-profit organisations.