Did you know how important it is to be your own leader?

We are currently seeing a transformation in the leadership paradigm, with organisations adopting mechanisms to empower their employees to become self-leaders. This approach implies that individuals take greater responsibility for their behaviour (Houghton et al., 2012). This shift reflects a growing emphasis on autonomy and promoting an organisational culture that values self-regulation and self-determination.

Individual resources are increasingly important and play a crucial role in people's professional performance, having a very positive impact. Self-efficacy, optimism and self-esteem interact significantly with goal achievement, engagement and satisfaction in the workplace (Sonnentag, 2015).

The concept of self-leadership introduced by Charles Manz in 1986 encompasses 3 core strategies: Behaviour-focused strategy, constructive thinking strategy and natural reward strategies.

• Behaviour-focused strategy:

The behaviour-focused strategy is based on self-observation, enabling individuals to develop a greater awareness of their own behaviour patterns. By incorporating self-reward and self-punishment, this approach strengthens the ability to celebrate personal achievements and correct unwanted behaviour, thus promoting self-discipline and effectiveness in managing daily actions.

• Constructive Thinking Strategy:

The constructive thinking strategy involves positive internal dialogue and the conscious evaluation of personal conceptions. By identifying and challenging harmful thoughts based on inaccurate assumptions, this approach aims to promote a more positive outlook, enabling individuals to control their thoughts and emotions, contributing to better performance and well-being.

• Natural Reward Strategy:

The natural reward strategy emphasises the importance of valuing the satisfying aspects of a task or activity while ignoring the less enjoyable parts. By associating pleasure with performing the task, this approach acts as positive reinforcement, encouraging the repetition of desired behaviours and contributing to a more rewarding experience in the workplace and everyday life.

Why does this have benefits?

After all, it's something we all do, some more and some less, but it shows that we have the capacity for self-leadership, we just never saw it as Self-Leadership.

These are three very important strategies that help us in various facets of our lives, but particularly in the organisational context they can be very useful.

Individuals with low self-leadership find it more difficult to set goals and end up engaging in more unpleasant activities, unlike individuals with high self-leadership who focus more on tasks that give them pleasure and are therefore more optimistic and generate more motivation to achieve their goals or tackle less preferred tasks (Unsworth and Mason, 2012). Since self-leadership is linked to optimism, these people are also able to maintain their sanity more easily in stressful times, a very important factor in a world where negative stress is increasingly reflected in the workplace. When difficulties and unforeseen events arise, people who are self-leaders quickly resolve them and face them with positive thinking (Dolbier et. al, 2001).

How do we do at AdvanceWorks?

In our company, we want to fulfil all the conditions for our employees to be self-leaders. 
First and foremost, we offer training opportunities in the widest possible areas to make our people more confident and self-effective in their decisions. 
Our culture is based on autonomy and trust! We encourage our team to take initiative and responsibility for their decisions and actions. This safe environment for expressing ideas builds a foundation for authenticity and for each person to become their own leader.
We also encourage employees to set challenging and meaningful goals for themselves. This creates a sense of purpose and personal direction, motivating them to constantly seek growth and improvement - our company grows with their growth. 
We recognise and celebrate individual and collective achievements along the way - reinforcing employees' self-esteem and motivation.
Finally, we work in Agile! In the Agile methodology, teams are responsible for planning, executing and evaluating their own work, promoting self-management to achieve objectives and autonomy that strengthens self-leadership. 
At AdvanceWorks, our culture fosters collaboration and mentoring, ensuring that no one is left alone.

Practical tips to increase self-leadership:

1. When carrying out a task, focus on the satisfying aspects, valuing them. Write down what you enjoyed most about the task, and what you learnt.
2. Use reminders as a tool to reinforce attention and awareness of your objectives.
3. Implement a self-reward system to celebrate personal achievements.
4. Regularly reflect on when, how and why you exhibit certain behaviours. If possible, write it down, we often end up forgetting and it's important to realise why we have certain attitudes.
5. When you reflect on your behaviour, recognise and correct behaviours that you despise.
6. Ask for and be open to constructive feedback, using it as a valuable tool for personal improvement.
7. Set specific and measurable goals to guide your actions, giving you a clear vision of what you want to achieve.
8. Adopt efficient time management techniques to increase productivity and stay focused on tasks.
9. Invest time in understanding your skills, strengths and areas for improvement, promoting a deeper understanding of yourself.
10. Look for environments that encourage your growth and fulfil your ambitions.