Hello All
I hope you are having a great week, if you have been following me for a while you will recall that one of my goals this year is to read 40 books that are somehow related to personal development and financial planning. At some point there I thought this was a bit out of reach but I now believe I will be able to achieve this goal. At this point I am on book number 26 meaning I only have to read 14 more books for the rest of the year no biggie.
One of the books I recently read was all about self leadership a term that I haven’t really come across. The full title of the book is ” Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager” …Increasing effectiveness through situational self leadership… discover the magic of no excuses (Ken Blanchard, Susan Fowler, Lawrence Hawkins). I am more in tune with the term self responsibility because I really believe we could all take a bit more responsibility for our lives. Self leadership is kinda similar although the focus was more about encouraging us to be our own leaders in our careers. What i loved about this book is that it was such an easy read, I couldn’t put it down I was done reading it in a day. A parable that talks through the process a young advertising goes through in realizing that he has to take responsibility in his own personal growth. Meaning he has to ask and seek out the training he needs to fulfill tasks that are unfamiliar to him. How many times do you go through life blaming circumstances or others for your own shortcomings. There is nothing wrong with not knowing something the problems begin when you decide to become a victim of the circumstances instead of the victor. Honesty is key if your boss gives you a task that you are unfamiliar with be honest enough to seek out clarification and training if need be… it will save you time and heart ache in the long run.
Self leadership means stepping up to the plate doing the deep work and assessing where you are and where you want to be in terms of your work goals, but it can also apply to your overall life goals. Have you honestly sat down and done a life assessment of where you are in terms of your life goals. Self leadership requires you to take the time to do such things. I do not want to speak for everyone but for the longest time my life was leading me and not the other way around. I want to lead my life… I want to be the leader of my career, my finances , my health etc… I want to do thing on my terms and in my time and self leadership makes me realize that this is all possible. I want to share a few quotes that really resonated with me from the book just to see how this concept can apply in your life.
” Empowerment Is Something Someone Gives You. Self Leadership Is What You Do To make It Work”
I will let this sink in for a minute because that statement gave me chills, when you are empowered to do something do you do everything to make it work or do you find reasons and excuses about why you cant do it.
“Ultimately, Its In Your Best Interest To Accept Responsibility For Getting What You Need To Succeed in The Work Place”
You are the best judge of where you are in the skills spectrum, what skills do you need to develop further to get the job done and to move beyond where you currently are.
“An Assumed Constraint Is a Belief You Have, Based on Past Experience, That Limits Your Current And Future Experiences” That is me with excel , for the longest time I had this belief that I could never understand excel because it was way too complex, this is me with a PhD in epidemiology… we all have these assumed constraints. The key is taking ownership and acknowledging that these constraints are not helping us at all.
I could go on and own transcribing more nuggets from the book but i thin you will get more value from the book by reading it your self. I borrowed my copy from the library but you can get it from amazon here.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and that you will consider self leadership in your own life. Sign up to receive more blog alerts as I publish them
With Love and Gratitude
Dr Fatsani Dogani
www.fatsanidogani.com 