100 THINGS SUCCESSFUL LEADERS DO

03- DISCOVER THE ART OF SELF-LEADERSHIP

'To successfully lead others, first get your own house in order.'

The hardest person in the world you'll ever have to lead and manage is yourself. Washing the dishes every day is the perfect analogy for what it means to lead yourself well. It's not hard to do, but do you get it done or do you just leave it for someone else?

As a leader, it can be easier to instruct other people to do the things you don't want to do. When you're dealing with other people, you can employ all sorts of leadership styles and tools, from motivating and encouraging, through to forcing and threatening. When it's just you, all you've got is the self-talk in your own head, and your success depends on your willpower, drive and self-commitment. If you've set your alarm to get an early start on a busy day, do you spring out of bed as planned, or do you just hit snooze on repeat?

Self-leadership is the first level of leadership, and if you struggle to lead yourself it doesn't bode well for your ability to perform well at the other types of leadership shown below. You'll never successfully and consistently lead other people. lead leaders or lead an entire organization when you can't even lead yourself. That's why now is the time to get your own house in order.

Make a self-leadership plan

Self-leadership involves managing how you act, behave,communicate and use your time. It covers every aspect of how you speak to, instruct, criticize and work with yourself. As minimum, you need to:

* Make sure that you remember any goals and to-do lists you set for yourself, and that you work towards achieving what you say you'll do.

* Maintain your health and good habits, while working to eliminate any unhealthy ones.

* Motivate yourself by trying to do things you enjoy that you'll find fulfillment in completing.

* Learn to say 'no', when needed, to requests from other people.

* Control your own emotions and how you communicate with other people.

* Be consistent in how you lead yourself and in how you lead others. As an example, if you want your team to be more creative, open-minded or punctual, you must also exhibit these same qualities.

* Be kind, compassionate and positive to yourself. You'll always have days when you make mistakes, forget to complete a task or say the wrong thing, and when this happens don't be over-critical and beat yourself up.

Find someone who will hold you accountable for working on and improving your own self-leadership abilities. share with a close friend or trusted colleague your goals and actions flow how you want to improve and ask them to observe, encourage and challenge you to stick to your plan.