A Research Paper By Adella St.Rose, Self-Leadership Coach, SAINT LUCIA
Leaders on Self-Leadership
Our views on leadership are often projected toward others, our managers, our community leaders, and national and global leaders be they leading groups, companies, or countries. It is easier to observe, and view through our personal lens of experience and expectations and form an opinion of another’s capabilities. When we turn the lens inwards our ability to explore our own adeptness starting with ourselves can be evocative and life-changing. This self-exploration and awareness of how we lead ourselves can form a powerful basis for being the leader we desire to be in all aspects of life. As Lao Tzu says, “Mastering others is a strength, mastering yourself is true power.”
Charles C Manz, one of the earliest thought leaders on self-leadership, defined self-leadership as a
comprehensive self-influence perspective that concerns leading oneself toward performance of naturally motivating tasks as well as managing oneself to do work that must be done but is not naturally motivating” (Manz, 1986).
By the very nature of the language, it provides a context that evokes organizational environs.
To offer a broader definition from Andrew Bryant and Ana Lucia Kazan (2012)
Self-leadership is having a developed sense of who you are, what you can do, where you are going coupled with the ability to influence your communication, emotions, and behavior on the way to getting there.
Self-Leadership
The definitions while over twenty-five years apart both bring to mind the focus on self and the ability to self-influence.
This paper hypothesizes that effective leadership first requires self-leadership. This topic presents the opportunity to deconstruction the ease with which we explore others’ leadership by challenging what we should first look at, our ability to lead ourselves and to be effective in leading beyond ourselves.
The exploration of self is not new, as we see in the multitude of tools and assessments for leadership, they begin with an assessment of self either paralleled against a database of others or individual specific feedback gathered. Similarly, when we look at our Emotional Quotient it starts with our own level of self-awareness followed by our impact on others. Exploring this topic gives insight to aspiring leaders be it in their lives, careers, or beyond the true starting point to effectively leading others is self. It is hoped that a reader may be inspired to make an investment in self-first, to truly impact others. It also provides a foundation for organizations who are seeking to develop leadership talent to not only look to the building of functional capabilities but to include with equal passion the development of what is today characterized as the inner game. Timothy Gallwey, a tennis coach and player, defines the inner game as what goes on in your mind.
Peter Drucker boldly stated that in order to be excellent at managing others you had to first understand yourself and by extension with this understanding lead yourself. Understanding yourself he proposed was to be knowledgeable about your values, the grounding for your strengths. He further proposed that one had to be knowledgeable about their strengths, be aware of how one performs, and have clarity on what one will bring to the leadership space.
This was supported by a McKinsey study which began in 2004 focusing on helping women in business. The study concluded that “centered leadership” sets apart leaders. Specifically, “Start practicing centered leadership by leading yourself.” The study also reported one executive told the researchers, “Our senior team is always talking about changing the organization, changing the mindsets and behavior of everyone. Now I see that transformation is not about that. It starts with me.” This again echoes Drucker’s view that effective leadership must begin with a focus on self, looking inward to then allow effective outward leadership.
Tony Gambill and Scott Carbonara in their book Getting It Right When It Matters Most[i] introduced the SOAR model. Tony Gambill in his article for Forbes titled “Why Self Leadership is The Most Important Leadership” states, “The most effective leaders share a pattern of foundational Self-Leadership behaviors which all of their actions are built upon.”
He goes on to summarise the SOAR model, as referenced below, as a “Self-Leadership” model which is a framework that allows an individual to become aware of the key tools for managing themselves thereby leading themselves.
SOAR Self-Leadership Model, Gamble and Carbonara, 2021
Gamble and Carbonara conclude that to effectively manage others, you must first lead yourself.
In reviewing the above research, I was not able to find a perspective that challenged this view however Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman in their Harvard Business Review article titled Ten Fatal Flaws that Derail Leaders highlight the following 10 fatal flaws.
- Lack of Energy and Enthusiasm
- Accept your own mediocre performance
- Lack of clear vision and direction
- Have poor judgement
- Don’t collaborate
- Don’t walk the talk
- Resist new ideas
- Don’t Learn from mistakes
- Lack interpersonal skills
- Fail to develop others
A leader displaying the above fatal flaws, and behaviors, is clearly in opposition to the leader seen in the SOAR model. For example, the SOAR model speaks to a leader who self-leads through Reflection. Reflection is characterized by Gamble as the process of the individual “critically evaluating their behaviors, perspectives, habits, and communication from previous actions to gain insight to adapt for future challenges.” This behavior speaks to an individual who develops a growth mindset regarding themselves. They learn to do better, improve their interpersonal skills, etc. It can therefore be concluded that whereas an individual who first leads themselves is reflective, learning from their mistakes, the leader whose fatal flaws derail them is not.
Within the coaching space, clients are given a safe nonjudgmental space to explore where they are today with a view to where they want to be tomorrow. Coaching topics can range from a broad inexhaustive list. Many of these topics come back to the client’s wish to be active in shaping and directing their life. This can be their career, relationships, their decision-making process, how they lead others, etc. All of these come back to their sense of self, their abilities, what they want in life, and their ability to articulate it, how they think and act. By Bryant and Kazan’s definition, this is reflective of self-leadership.
When leaders actively engage in the coaching process, by becoming clients they are by the very nature of the coaching process and definition of coaching developing self-knowledge, reflecting, choosing to grow, and actively committing to taking actions that bring them closer to their goals. Based on the views expressed by Drucker, McKinsey, Gambill, Bryant, and Kazan this act of intentionally developing self-leadership will positively impact overall leadership effectiveness.
To specifically look at Bryant and Kazan’s definition I will explore how coaching supports his view of developing self-leadership and by extension effective leadership.
Coaching and Sense of Self
By its very nature coaching seeks to go beneath the stories that clients tell to evoke an awareness of who they see themselves as, how they show up, and how this aligns with who they want to be. This can be explored through questions such as the following:
- What are you doing when you most feel like the person you want to be?
- What are you good at?
- When do you most not feel like the person you want to be?
Coaching and Acting
When we participate in coaching, clients are asked to explore what actions they can take to bring them closer to their goals and to commit to taking those actions. This is explored through questions like the following.
- What could you start doing today that would take you one step closer to your goal?
- How will you feel when you take this step?
- What will help you to be committed to taking this action?
Coaching and Future Setting
The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”[ii] The word potential by its very nature implies the future, with this, coaching focuses the client not on the past but on how they wish to go forward. It is primarily forward-looking. Coaches guide clients forward through questions like the following.
- What would help you to move forward?
- What would your 75-year-old self tell you in this situation?
- Looking forward, where would you see yourself?
Coaching and Communication
Clients can choose through coaching to be intentional about how they communicate. This is achieved through understanding where they are today and where they aspire to be. They can become aware of what is beneath their communication styles and through that awareness identify what the gap is that exists and create a plan to close or redefine the gap. Questions as below can support this awareness.
- What is communicating like for you today?
- If how you communicated was a shape, what would that shape represent?
- What is bothersome to you about how you communicate?
Coaching and Emotions
During our ICA studies, one of the areas studied was emotional intelligence. Psychology Today refers to the theory made popular by Daniel Goleman as “the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.”[iii] Within the coaching space the clients’ emotions are respectfully and curiously observed, explored, and challenged. Through the coaching process, clients become aware of their own state of mind, how it shows up how it can impact others, and conversely how they are being impacted by others’ emotions. In coaching, emotions invite exploration of what lies beneath. Lyssa Danehy deHart, MSW, PCC states, “Questions that invite your client to explore the emotion, and not the situation, ultimately give your client the internal tools to navigate same or similar feelings the next time they pop up.”[iv]
She recommends emotions can be explored with questions as below.
- If your emotion had a voice, what do you think it is trying to tell you?
- Where is the emotion sitting in your body? Breathe into it; what new awareness bubbles up?
- What is the value of this emotion in this situation?
Coaching and Behaviour
Behaviors are what others see, when we lead ourselves we are intentional about how we behave which in turn is what others see. Through coaching, clients explore the intention behind their behavior, coaches model effective feedback and active listening, and they invite clients to become aware of their behaviors and through that awareness learn about themselves so that they may grow. They may ask;
- What are you gaining by this behavior?
- What would behaving in alignment with your values look like?
- What does this behavior tell you about yourself?
Coaching and Creating a Plan
Ultimately clients come to coaching with a goal and a desired outcome for the end of every session. At times the desired outcome is that they have a plan to bring them closer to a goal.
- What could you do to bring you closer to your goal?
- What actions could you take to get you closer to your goal?
- What could get in the way of you achieving your goal?
The above which breaks down the key components of self-leadership per Bryant and Kazan highlights how those components are explored through coaching. The ability to link the components of the definition to elements of coaching clearly shows that coaching actively supports self-leadership as such effective leadership.
To conclude, the research presented in this paper clearly confirms that effective leadership starts with self-leadership. It further shows that coaching supports the development of self-leadership by its very nature and practice. As such an individual seeking to be a more effective leader should start with developing their own self leadership which can be nurtured through coaching. Coaching is a powerful partner in self-leadership development meeting the client wherever they may be on the journey.
As I continue my coaching journey and seek to coach within the self-leadership niche, the knowledge gained from this research paper confirms for me the important and impactful nature of coaching in developing self-leadership.
In the words of Lao Tzu
Mastering others is a strength, Mastering yourself is true power.
References
[i] Getting It Right When It Matters Most (Gambill and Carbonara, 2021)
[ii] ICF, the Gold Standard in Coaching | Read About ICF. (coachingfederation.org)
[iii] Emotional Intelligence | Psychology Today
[iv] Emotions Are Like Road Signs – International Coaching Federation