In a world that is constantly evolving and where the roles and responsibilities of leaders are becoming increasingly complex, personal leadership has become a key factor for success. In fact, it's one of your most precious tools as a leader.
In a fast-paced and ever-changing work environment, leadership isn't just a title or a series of tasks, nor is it just about charisma or your personality. It's about figuring out how to lead with authenticity and integrity. To discover your personal leadership, you need to embark on a deeply personal journey that requires you to look inward and understand yourself first before you can inspire and lead others.
In this blog post, we will give you concrete tools and advice to develop your personal leadership skills so you can create a workplace where employees thrive and where you can handle challenges and dilemmas with confidence and authenticity.
So let's dive into how you can take control of your leadership and reach new heights in your career.
What is personal leadership?
Personal leadership goes beyond traditional notions of leadership. It's not just about delegating tasks, setting goals or creating clarity around tasks. It's a deeply personal journey of understanding yourself as a leader and using that insight to create an authentic and meaningful leadership style.
Beneath the surface of traditional leadership styles lies a foundation of values, attitudes and life experiences that influence your approach to leadership. Your personal leadership is a reflection of this foundation and what you choose to do with it.
Having knowledge and skills is important, but it's only the beginning. True personal leadership is about making a connection between what you know, what you can do and what you do. It is this connection that determines your credibility as a leader.
Self-awareness is a key component of personal leadership. It's about reflecting on your relationships and situations and using this insight to make better decisions and build stronger relationships. Because personal leadership requires authenticity and genuineness. It's about being yourself as a leader and creating a workplace where employees feel seen, heard and valued.
Learn about the term: Radical Candor here.
Benefits of personal leadership
Personal leadership has a significant impact on workplace culture. When managers practice true personal leadership, the workplace often becomes more inclusive and supportive. This creates an atmosphere where employees feel comfortable expressing themselves, sharing ideas and taking initiative.
This openness can increase wellbeing and create a positive work environment in the following ways:
- Preventing stress and burnout
One of the most valuable benefits of personal leadership is the prevention of stress and burnout in both managers and employees. By being honest about their needs and boundaries, leaders can create a culture where it's acceptable to speak up and take care of their mental and physical wellbeing.
- Promoting engagement and productivity
When employees feel seen, heard and valued by their managers, they often become more engaged in their work. Engaged employees tend to be more productive, creative and dedicated to achieving organizational goals. Personal leadership creates a platform for building strong relationships between managers and employees, which can lead to increased employee engagement and therefore greater success for the business.
- Supports personal and professional development
Managers who excel at personal leadership are often more likely to support employees' personal and professional development. They are aware of employees' strengths and weaknesses and help them realize their potential.
- Potentially strengthens your organization's reputation
Companies that have leaders who practice authentic personal leadership often have a stronger reputation in the industry and among customers and partners. This type of leadership demonstrates a company's commitment to creating a positive work culture and can contribute to a positive reputation for the organization as a whole.
Personal leadership is not only good for the leader themselves, but it also has far-reaching benefits for the organization as a whole. It is therefore an essential part of modern leadership that should be prioritized and cultivated by all leaders.
The five elements of understanding personal leadership
When talking about personal leadership, there is a five-element model that can be used to understand personal leadership. The model is inspired by Norwegian leadership professor Torodd Strand and includes both the ability to lead yourself, also known as self-leadership, as well as the relational dimension, where your personal skills and preferences are translated into effective leadership of the people around you.
The five elements of the model are:
- Life course
In developing your personal leadership, it is important to focus on the experiences that have shaped you as an individual and the ambitions you have for the future. Life's different events leave individual imprints on your desires and motivators in relation to leadership, personal growth and career development.
What key experiences have had a decisive influence on your personal development? How have specific experiences and people left an indelible mark on your life trajectory? How have these events influenced your approach to work life? These are questions that can help you explore and understand your own values, drivers and desires. They form the basis for integrating these insights into your leadership practice and personal development.
These reflections play an essential role in exploring and developing your personal leadership, as they contribute to a deeper understanding of your values, drivers and desires, which you can integrate into your leadership practice and personal development.
- Values
Motives and values play an important role in our daily and professional lives. They are fundamental elements that have evolved throughout our lives, often influenced by the people around us.
As a leader, you have a special responsibility as you influence other people. It's therefore important to understand your own driving forces so that you don't act impulsively based on short-term motives or values. Having a broader awareness of how your motives and values influence your leadership can help you make better decisions in different situations.
Reflecting on this can help you become more aware of yourself as a leader and make decisions that are aligned with your core values. This is essential for success as a leader and for your personal development.
- Strengths and weaknesses
When working to identify your strengths and weaknesses as a leader, it's important to think practically and concretely. Here are some steps to help you get a more tangible grasp of what works for you as a leader and where there is room for improvement:
- Self-reflection: Start by thinking about when you've felt you performed leadership tasks well and when you might have struggled. Concretize these moments. What did you do differently in those situations where you felt you excelled? What were the challenges when things didn't go so well?
- Feedback from colleagues: Take an informal approach and talk to your colleagues and employees. Ask them for specific examples of where they think you've done well as a leader and where there's room for improvement. This can give you practical insights.
Do you (and your team) want to get better at giving feedback? We help create a culture where feedback and dialog is so natural that it becomes a competitive parameter. - Purposeful observation: Pay attention to your own behavior and decisions in daily management situations. Take note of how you respond to challenges and how you interact with your team. This can help you identify patterns in your leadership style.
- Practical tools: Consider using management tools such as checklists or forms to assess your own performance in different situations. This can give you a structured approach to evaluating yourself.
- Training or coaching: Sign up for leadership courses or consider working with a coach who can give you individual feedback and help you develop specific skills.
By focusing on specific situations and behaviors, you can get a more down-to-earth picture of where your strengths and weaknesses as a leader lie. This makes it easier to identify how you can work with them in practice to improve your leadership.
- Personal management theory
Clarifying your personal theory of good leadership and your assumptions about what motivates people is a crucial part of developing your personal leadership. This is about defining your beliefs and principles about what good leadership is for you. What are your core values as a leader? What does your ideal leadership style look like? Your thoughts on how you should lead and what is important in the leadership process are key components of your personal theory of leadership.
You should also explore what you believe drives and motivates people in your organization. Beliefs about whether people are primarily motivated by financial rewards, personal development, recognition or something else entirely will greatly influence your approach to leadership. It's also crucial to consider whether your assumptions about motivation are constant or can vary depending on individual differences.
In summary, it's about creating a clear and conscious understanding of what you believe as a leader and how you view motivation and human behavior.
- Personal vision
As a leader, you face the challenging task of setting the course and direction for your organization. And in a world that's becoming increasingly complex and filled with a multitude of challenges and dilemmas, turning thoughts into actions isn't always straightforward. It can also be difficult for your employees to understand how they can best contribute to the organization's goals unless they can clearly see how it all fits together.
Therefore, it is absolutely crucial that you as a leader formulate your own personal vision tailored to the specific task or responsibility you have in the organization. This vision should include an ambitious description of the desired outcomes and characteristics you envision for the organization in the future.
Your vision serves as your internal compass that guides you in your decision-making, motivates you to fully engage and helps you inspire others to join you on the journey towards your visionary goals. In this way, the vision becomes more than just a word or a document; it becomes a living force that drives you and your organization forward towards success.
The five elements of developing your personal leadership require continuous attention and effort.
Regardless of your experience as a leader, it's important to remember that you should work on these aspects regularly to achieve personal growth and improvement as a leader.
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