“The first and best victory is to conquer self.” 

PLATO

Self-leadership is so essential when it comes to moving things forward in your business and being a leader. A massive area of self-leadership is discipline, and discipline builds the significant marker of success and consistency. You speak to any professional athlete, high-performing CEO or successful business founder, and consistency will always come up.

Studies have highlighted that people with great discipline and self-control are happier in what they do and feel they have more influence over their life.

Business leaders with great self-leadership make better decisions in shorter periods of time. You understand that your actions are part of your values, visions, and purpose. Actions build success, and you have a clear blueprint of how to be proactive and reactive. 

“You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.” 

MARCUS AURELIUS

Self-leadership is a learned skill; like all skills you want to improve, you need to put it into practice and work. When we are born, self-leadership is not part of us, and it’s not part of our children; we need to develop this and understand this then we can be more forgiving when we make mistakes.

In part one, I will discuss three ways to start this process. I want you to keep thinking: simple things done simply well!! I have often sat across from a client in executive coaching sessions, and all they want is the 1%er! We as a team have to keep coming back to foundations. Here are five ways to develop self-leadership.

Number One: Create your vision, set clear goals and take action

If you have read any of my other resources or watched my YouTube videos, you will hear me talk about vision, goals, and action. 

You must have a clear vision of your outcome. Ask yourself:

What do I want my life to look/feel/sound like?

Do I have a clear understanding of what success means?

Remember, success is defined in different ways by everyone. This is your north star, the thing that keeps you on track. Cognitive Athlete coaches business dads to help with strategic planning, execution, and organisational transformation. Outcomes are like marketing. If you try to please everyone, you please no one. If you have too many outcomes, you achieve none.

A clear action plan creates KPIs that drive you forward on this journey. Revisit your vision often, and reinforce why you are doing challenging things and putting yourself into uncomfortable positions. Create space to do this, which can be very difficult as a business dad, but it will help.

Number Two: Routine and Habit Is The Corner Stone

Consistency is key to self-leadership, and routines and habits build that consistency. All complex issues can be broken down into individual small steps, and in theory, climbing Mount Everest is just one step after another. Don’t forget that the brain rewards us for small wins similar to big wins. 

I talk about the foundations of being an ambitious business dad all the time; the amount we move, sleep, and breathe has a massive effect on business and being a dad. 

So think how you can increase your step count by 500 per day, go to bed that little bit earlier, book more playdates with the children, and create time blocks for concentrated work.

Self-leadership is created over time; if we try to go too hard too early, the chances of failure are more significant. 

Creating a plan for this allows for a daily routine. With repetition, anyone can develop and grow.

Repetition is the mother of skill- Tony Robbins.

Check out our video our how to structure your high-performance video below or here.

Number three: Develop a high-performance environment

“I can resist anything except temptation.” ~ OSCAR WILDE

Our environment has a significant impact on performance day to day so make sure your environment is supporting your goals.

Are you trying to be more focused at work but have your email tab open and notifications on?

Are you trying to lose weight, but there’s chocolate in the fridge calling your name?

Are you trying to go to bed early but have just started watching that television series?

Willpower is not a bottomless resource; when we are fatigued, it becomes harder to make the right decision. 

When executive coaching, I help my clients create this high-performance environment allowing them to develop and understand that willpower can deplete over time, but our perception of willpower does not. 

Summary

Here is part 1 and the three ways to help develop self-leadership. If we can’t lead ourselves, we can’t lead others in our business and at home.

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me an email at [email protected] or book a call here.