Self leadership is perhaps the common denominator of all of the great people we’ve worked with. Sure they’re great at leading other people but this is always possible because they start by leading themselves. These great leaders constantly know that they need to challenge themselve to be ready to “perform” as a leader. Their success is probably not punctuated by the specific execution of project milestons, but their performance is made up of many discrete actions that add up to the people that they’re leading being supported, informed, trusted, focused, connected, independent, interpendent.
In order to have this kind of impact on others, it requires the leader to afford the same to kind of direction for themselves in the form of self-leadership; regularly making time to stay informed, build self-trust, focus on the right things, stay connected with their key people, be seen as independently strong and working effectively with others.
With all of the leaders “visible” performance time being in meetings and key exchanges with team members, the great leaders constantly make the time to ensure that their “invisible” performances totally prepare them for the public leadership displays. So, as a leader, is your ratio of time right between visible and invisible performances? Without making the time to be the best possible leader of yourself, can you really be leading others with maximum impact?