Sustainable Excellence Xtras #87 - Being Your Own Person with Queen Elizabeth I

As a leader, how important is it to be your own person and be able to lead yourself?

Depending on your position or status, you will have numerous individuals who try to gain favor with you by either telling you what you want to hear or promising something you want, if you align yourself with them.

However, before you can lead others and act in their best interest, you must first be able to lead yourself and understand what is right for you and for your team.

Of the many leadership qualities a leader must possess, self-awareness is one of the most important.  Developing the skills necessary to benefit and lead yourself are important in your personal and professional life.

According to a July 21, 2022, online article from Indeed entitled, What is Self-Leadership? 9 Steps To Develop Your Potential, there are nine skills necessary to be a self-leader:

1. Self-Awareness - The most important skill for developing self-leadership is knowing and understanding yourself. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are your values and what do you want to accomplish?  Knowing who you are leads to courage and confidence.

2. Motivation - Being motivated allows you to push the limits of your abilities and take calculated risks that make you more resilient. 

3. Decision-making - Once you understand your strengths and weaknesses, you need to be able to make the right calls to accomplish the objective. Your decisions need to not only be effective, but efficient as well. 

4. Dedication - Being able to self-lead allows you to stay on course when distractions attempt to derail you from accomplishing your objective. 

5. Influence - While you may have authority over others, influence inspires people to do their best because of the beliefs and actions you display. If you can maintain control of yourself, especially in difficult times, it will encourage others to act in the same way. 

6. Empathy - Having an understanding of your own emotions and feelings, will allow you to act accordingly when the emotions and feelings of your team members are threatened. Being empathetic is one of the best ways to connect on an emotional level with others.

7. Social Skills - Building strong connections, and maintaining those relationships is another way to bond with others. You do this by spending time getting to know your people and what is important to them. This connection builds trust and respect between you and your team. 

8. Self-Regulation - Being able to regulate your thoughts and emotions allows you to effectively respond to a challenge, instead of making a knee-jerk reaction to a situation. A reaction usually comes from a place of emotion, while a response is driven by values and logic. 

9. Accountability - Foregoing blame and being able to take responsibility for how things turn out is another important attribute of a self-regulated leader. Sharing the credit and taking full responsibility for things that go wrong, is an effective way to build a cohesive team.

Please watch the video below to learn how Queen Elizabeth I used self-leadership to effectively lead Great Britain for over 45 years.

Also, please leave me your thoughts on other steps to implement that would allow you to lead yourself.