The 4 Pillars of Self-Leadership: Time to Focus on You

Leaders spend many hours trying to shape and influence external factors such as processes, people, and targets.

Surprisingly, leaders would see better results if they spent more time focusing on self-leadership. Self-leadership consists of four elements: self-discovery, self-acceptance, self-management, and self-growth.

When we get busy, we often overlook the subtle shifts in ourselves. Or we become so focused on the work that we don't realise when we move away from what we truly value.

Being the best leaders we can be require us to identify our values and then live and lead according to them. When you understand what is important to you, what energizes you, what you believe in, and where you want to be, you can make decisions confidently.

Self-acceptance is not about accepting your failures and carrying on exactly as before. It is about taking responsibility for your actions, accepting what is and isn't possible to change, then developing a plan to improve things.

Self-acceptance is also about accepting your strengths. When you can identify your strengths, you can leverage that to get better results.

Self-management is about holding yourself accountable and ensuring you manage your time and resources effectively. Poor self-management leads to stress and burnout.

• Make time for self-development as part of good self-management. It ensures that you focus on the important tasks without distraction.
• Self-awareness. You need to know what habits you have so you can replace unhelpful habits with more desirable ones.
• Controlling your impulses - when you want to react instead of respond.
• Reflection is essential to keep you in tune with your priorities and values and identify opportunities for growth.

Self-growth is about striving to improve yourself and develop a sense of accountability and responsibility for the right things.

Self-growth requires passion and a sense of curiosity, always asking questions, and learning about your industry and yourself. Another essential part of self-growth is learning how to embrace failure and seeing it as a learning opportunity.