So often the biggest challenge in any leader is self-leadership. History is littered with great promising leaders who failed to lead themselves and thus robbed their time and ours from what could have been.
Leadership is sometimes defined as motivating others to do something that they individually would of never done where the collective result is far greater than the sum of the individuals.
How do we apply that same concept to self-leadership, or is it a contradiction of terms? I would like to propose that we look at part of self-leadership is the coordination or marshaling the efforts of mind, body, and soul to accomplish what they individually cannot.
Are we continually putting ourselves in a position to be challenged mentally? Are we reading the best thinking in the areas we are engaged? Are we pushing the envelope of what is thought as conventional wisdom? I really cannot think of any great leaders who when you look behind them they were not veracious readers. The list of self-taught leaders is extremely impressive with the likes of the most prolific inventor of our age Thomas Edison who had 3 months of formal education. College drop outs Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Alexander Graham Bell, broadcast legend Walter Cronkite and Michael Dell of Dell computer. Others like author Charles Dickens who had to leave school in his teens to tend to family needs.
Taking care of the physical body in times past was challenging. We have little excuse in many circumstances with modern medicine and nutrition and exercising. This is truly a discipline of the individual. Thinking back to some notable figures who were caught by premature deaths probably avoidable by to today’s standard…, Alexander the Great who it is told that he once marched with his men with the back of his clothes cut open because he had diarrhea but wanted to keep marching. While is it debated how he actually died it is thought to be ultimately of some form of gastric disorder from possibly drinking some bad wine or water. President William Harrison who died 31 days into office from a cold he caught but did not take care to get rest needed due the pressing matters of his new Presidency. It was said the White House was no place to rest… so he didn’t.
Lastly and probably the most devastating to our age is soul care. The moral failings continue to pile up usually disqualifying them from leadership. Borrowing from Alcohol Anonymous dialog the solution to avoiding destructive actions is behavioral modification through spiritual progress. Not necessarily intuitive but certainly demonstrated by many who have recovered from life destroying habits. Watching the condition of our soul/spirit will also give us the courage and passion to balance the rest of our lives and engage those we lead with integrity.
Each of these areas require planning, time and follow through to be balanced and healthy. So in the end self leadership is not just figuring out how to care for mind, body and soul but how to get the multiplication of leadership out of the coordination of the 3 to do more than the sum of each.