In a world that is constantly evolving and where the roles and responsibilities of managers are becoming increasingly complex, personal leadership has become a key factor for success. In fact, it is one of your most precious tools as a leader.
In a busy and changing work environment, leadership is not just a title or a series of tasks, just as it is not simply about charisma or your personality. It's about figuring out how you can lead with authenticity and integrity. To tap into your personal leadership, you must 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 therefore give you concrete tools and advice to develop your personal leadership so that 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 the traditional notions of managements. It is not just a matter of delegating tasks, setting objectives or clarifying tasks. It is a deeply personal journey that is about understanding yourself as a leader and using these insights to create an authentic and meaningful leadership style.
Beneath the surface of traditional management styles there hides a foundation of values, attitudes and life experiences that influence your approach to leadership. Your personal leadership is a reflection of that foundation and what you choose to do with it.
Having knowledge and skills is important, but this is only the beginning. True personal leadership is about creating a connection between what you know, what you can, and what you do. It is this context that determines your credibility as a leader.
Self-insight is a key component of personal leadership. It's about reflecting on your relationships and situations and using that insight to make better decisions and create stronger relationships. Personal leadership requires authenticity and authenticity. It's about being yourself as a leader and creating a workplace where employees feel seen, heard and valued.
Learn about the concept: Radical Candor here.
Benefits of Personal Leadership
Personal leadership has a significant impact on work 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 initiatives.
This openness can increase well-being and create a positive work environment in the following ways:
- Prevention of 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 own needs and boundaries, leaders can create a culture where it is acceptable to speak out and take care of one's mental and physical well-being.
- 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 the organization's goals. Personal leadership creates a platform for building strong relationships between managers and employees, which can lead to increased employee engagement and thus greater success for the company.
- Supports personal and professional development
Managers who excel in personal leadership are often more likely to support employees' personal and professional development. They are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of employees and help them realize their potential.
- Potentially strengthens the reputation of the organization
Companies that have executives who exercise authentic personal leadership often have a stronger reputation in the industry and among customers and partners. This type of leadership demonstrates the 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 himself, but it also has far-reaching benefits for the organization as a whole. It is therefore an essential part of modern management that should be prioritized and cultivated by all managers.
The Five Elements of Understanding Personal Leadership
When talking about personal leadership, there is a model with five elements that one can use to understand personal leadership. The model is inspired by the Norwegian management professor Torodd Beach and includes both the ability to lead oneself, also called self-management, as well as the relational dimension where your personal competencies and preferences translate into effective management of people around you.
The five elements of the model are:
- Life course
In working to develop your personal leadership, it is important to focus attention on the experiences that have shaped you as an individual and the ambitions you harbor for the future. The different events of life leave individual imprints on your desires and motivational factors in relation to leadership, personal growth and career development.
What key experiences have had a decisive impact on your personal development? How have specific experiences and people left indelible traces in your life trajectory? In what way have these events affected your approach to working life? These are questions that can help you explore and understand your own values, drives and desires. They provide the foundation for integrating these realizations into your management 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, drives and desires that you can incorporate into your management practice and personal development.
- Values
Motives and values play an important role in our daily lives and in our working lives. They are fundamental elements that have evolved throughout our lives, often influenced by the people we have had around us.
As a leader, you have a special responsibility as you influence other people. It is therefore important to understand your own driving forces so that you do not act impulsively based on short-term motives or values. Having a broader awareness of how your motives and values affect 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 consistent with your core values. This is essential for achieving success as a leader and for your personal development.
- Strengths and weaknesses
When working to uncover your strengths and weaknesses as a leader, it is important to think practically and concretely. Here are some steps that can help you get a more tangible grip on what works for you as a leader and where there is room for improvement:
- Self-reflection: Start by thinking about when you have felt that you performed the management tasks well and when you may have struggled. Concretize these moments. What did you do differently in the situations where you felt you excelled? What were the challenges when things weren't going 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.
Will you (and your team) Get better at giving feedback? We help create a culture where feedback and dialogue are so natural that it becomes a competitive parameter. - Targeted observation: Pay attention to your own behavior and decisions in daily management situations. Take notes on 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 schedules to assess your own performance in different situations. This can give you a structured approach to evaluating yourself.
- Course or Coaching: Sign up management courses or consider working with a coach who can give you individual feedback and help you develop concrete skills.
By focusing on concrete situations and behavior patterns, you can get a more down-to-earth view 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 management.
- 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 management 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. The belief in whether people are primarily motivated by financial rewards, personal development, recognition, or something else entirely has a big impact on your approach to leadership. It is also crucial to consider whether your assumptions about motivation are constant or may vary depending on individual differences.
In summary, it's about creating a clear and conscious understanding of what you believe in as a leader and how you view motivation and human behavior.
- Personal vision
As a leader, you are faced with the challenging task of setting the course and determining the direction of your organization. And in a world that is increasingly complex and filled with a multitude of challenges and dilemmas, turning thoughts into actions is not always entirely straightforward. It can also be difficult for your employees to understand how best to 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 that is tailored to the specific task or responsibility you have in the organization. This vision should include an ambitious description of the desired results and characteristics that you envision for the organization in the future.
Your vision serves as your internal compass that guides you in your decision-making, motivates you for full engagement, and helps you inspire others to join the journey toward your visionary goals. In this way, vision becomes more than just a word or 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 is important to remember that you should work on these aspects regularly to achieve personal growth and improvement as a leader.
