The Art of Self-Leadership
Learning objective
At the end of this lesson, the young leaders will be able to use at least one self-awareness tool to improve their leadership of Self in skill and character.
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Overview of the art of self-leadership Lesson:
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This lesson will cover the meaning of self-leadership, tools to use in knowing oneself and how to apply this self-awareness to improving one's skill and character.
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What is Self-Leadership?
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Knowing and Understanding yourself (self-discovery)-Building Skill
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Leading yourself through accountability and boundaries-Building Character
Introduction
Questions for Young Leaders:
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What do you understand by self-leadership?
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Why is it difficult to lead Self?
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Leadership is the capacity to influence people through inspiration. It is the ability to provide vision and influence others to see that vision as their own.
Leadership also involves inspiring people to excel in who they are and creating an environment where those you lead can flourish in skill and in their personal aspirations.
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John Maxwell, one of the world’s top Leadership thinkers said,
“A successful person finds the right place for himself. But a successful leader finds the right place for others. Real leadership is being the person others will gladly and confidently follow.”
The big question to answer as you lead is this, “would you follow yourself?”
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This question is impossible to answer if you have a very low Self-awareness. Improving your Self-awareness is what this lesson will train you on and it is what we are calling the art of self-leadership.
What is Self-Leadership?
Self-Leadership is intentionally learning who you are and understanding how you relate with others. Self-leadership to a great extent has to do with self-awareness.
Leading is an art which is only perfected in the doing, so is Self-leadership.
Anyone can lead, but good leadership is learnt. As the saying goes, you cannot learn to lead others when you cannot lead yourself.
THE MOST DIFFICULT PERSON TO LEAD IS YO
The reason why it is so difficult to lead yourself, could be because we tend to judge ourselves based on our good intensions while we judge others based on their actions. This makes our thinking about self a little skewed and it prevents us from offering the needed amount of grace to others.
Activity:
This activity will introduce you to our first simple tool that can increase your level of self-awareness.
Ask the 3 Why questions: The inventor and founder of Toyota, Sakichi Toyoda used to ask 5 why questions to uncover errors in his production plant. These whys can also be streamlined to 3 whys.
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In groups of 3 take turns in coming up with a real problem you have right now and answer the questions which your “3 Whys” will lead you to ask.
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Example:
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Problem: My neck hurts right now
My Neck hurts right now.
Why does your neck hurt?
Because I have been trying to finish this paper before 10am
Why do you have to finish the paper by 10am?
Because if I do not I will miss my submission deadline
Why do you have to meet your submission deadline?
Because if I miss this deadline I will get a zero on my test and fail the course.
Self-Discovery: So you found out that your neck hurts because you are stressed
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Many people never take the time to study themselves, maybe because it is easier to see the spec in our brother’s eye rather than the log in our own eye.
“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye[c] when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend,[d] ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. (Matt 7:3-5)
Self-leadership is what will distinguish you from other leaders.
The art of self-leadership is achieved by being intentional about understanding who you are (Your personality, strengths and weaknesses).
This understanding alone is not enough, it should be coupled with an understanding of how you relate with others and how to use this knowledge to build your skill and character. These two things as a whole will grow your leadership effectiveness and you will inspire others around you.
It is important to note that, understanding Self is a journey, because we grow and change over time, but that discipline of becoming self-aware is what should stay the same throughout your life, if you want to become a great leader.
Life Application Exercise:
To help you in this pursuit of self-discovery I will request that you do 2 things:
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First, ask 3 of your closest friends or family about yourself—ask them to provide 2-3 unique qualities they have observed over the years about you. Then analyze the three reports to see similarities or trends in who your friends/family say you are.
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Second, take these three personality tests that can help you know and affirm your special gifts and your unique personality
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Knowing and Understanding yourself (Self-discovery)-Building Skill
Self-leadership is an important goal for a leader because it is your state of composure that motivates people to follow you. Self-discovery also gives you great insight into your strengths, which if you continue to use them, it will build your skills.
You are unique from anyone who has existed before you or who currently exist, and in you is endowed unique strengths and abilities, which when discovered and used would allow you to excel in your performance and add great value to any team or project.
So always remember that you bring something unique to your team, your company, community and world. Because there is only ONE YOU.
This should give you great confidence and encouragement as you seek to discover what those things are that are uniquely You.
Activity: 20 mins.
Last Lesson you were asked to do a number of Personality tests and to ask close friends and family to share some things about you that are unique.
Today we will look at only the 16Personality test results.
We will divide you all in groups of 5 where you will share your results by focusing on only the five focus below from your test.
Here are some questions to discuss to get your conversation started:
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How did your overall results match your personality traits? How were you surprised by your results?
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What key Strengths did you discover about yourself, which affirmed what you knew about yourself or what people have told you?
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What are some fun facts you discovered, strengths, weaknesses?
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Test Focus Areas:
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Introduction
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Strengths & Weaknesses
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Romantic Relationship
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Career Path
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Workplace habits
Activity: 30 mins
Facilitator: Divide the class into groups of 5 and have each group focus on 1-2 personality types and one focus area (depending on your class number).
Each group will present a summary of their given personality type within their focus area. In their presentation they will also answer two questions:
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What strength does this personality type bring to a team?
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How can you use this information to lead yourself and others in your work teams?
Leading yourself through accountability and boundaries-Building Character
We already looked at ways to increasingly become self-aware by using personality tests and getting feedback from close family & friends. We have also seen how each personality type brings unique strength and skills to any team.
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Now let us look at how you can use your understanding of yourself to effectively lead yourself well in the area of your character.
BOUNDARIES:
Boundaries involves in our lesson, setting practical standards and or rules for yourself in light with things that can easily cause you to fall into unethical or unacceptable behavior and hence prevent you from leading yourself well.
Boundaries are just common-sense defensive disciplines a leader puts in their life so that they can curb their weaknesses and build on their personal life goals.
We believe that there is freedom in boundaries.
For example, if you took a fish out of the boundaries of water and put them on land, eventually they will die. However, when they are confined in the boundaries of water, they are free to roam, grow and be all they were created to be.
In the same way, boundaries you set for yourself, helps you avoid unnecessary unethical patterns but enables you to excel in being who you were created to be.
These boundaries are different for everyone. Your boundaries might be different from the next person, mainly because you have different weaknesses and life goals.
For example: If I know one of my life goals is to be a professor in English one day, one of my boundaries might be to limit the amount of time I spend watching TV but increase the number of books I read.
Another example: As a married professional woman, you can decide to avoid going on business trips together with another male colleague to prevent yourself from falling into compromising situations that could affect your marriage relationship.
Or if you are a single young man, who has the tendency to abuse alcohol, you could have the boundary of not buying alcohol or drinking at home.
Applying boundaries to your life is like calling your “Play” before the game begins, because in the heat of the moment, it will be too late to formulate the right Play.
ACCOUNTABILITY
We cannot be an effective leader by ourselves, we need others who can help us build our skill but also offer us accountability to build our character.
In our 16personality test results, we saw that each personality type has strengths but also has weaknesses. In understanding your weaknesses, you can have others to nhelp you see your own blind spots. This is another form of accountability.
To lead yourself and others well, you need to surround yourself with people who you have given permission to speak truth to you especially around your weaknesses.
For example: If you have a personality type that does not do well with details, you should find someone who is great at looking at details, so that they can look over any details in a document or project idea you are responsible for.
Another example: If you are in a culture where bribery and corruption is rampant and you have pledged not to take part in this unethical behavior. It will benefit you to have some accountability partners who share the same idles, that way you all can hold each other accountable to this ethical standard. Going at it alone will make it less likely for you to maintain this idle especially because of cultural pressure.
Money is usually a big temptation for most people, as a leader it is important to have accountability measures in your company, group or team to make sure revenue and expenditures are transparent, avoiding any financial theft.
Accountability like boundaries are two common-sense things to apply to your life, which shows a strong sense of self-awareness.
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These are some of the building blocks to great leadership.
​Lifestyle Application:
C-Life will provide you the opportunity to be accountable to a group of your colleagues and in your groups, you will get the opportunity to set some practical boundaries for yourself.
Next week you will be grouped into “Life groups” where you will get to know each other more intimately and live out all you are being taught. Your life group members will hold you accountable in love, and truth, showered with grace.
In this real-life context, you will get a chance to practice what you have learned in The art of Self-Leadership.