It’s a great day for a great day! Last week kicked-off a 4-part rant on self-leadership. Today is part 2and dives into the first key to self-leadership!
Key #1 comin’ at ya!
As I mentioned last week, great leadership starts with self leadership. Our focus typically shifts to leading others or the external aspects of leadership, but it starts with you. To step up and lead others you must first lead yourself and be clear on who you areand what you value. We don’t need to be someone we’re not or mirror what our society says leadership “looks like” – establish your own leadership identity and do YOU.
With that said, the first, and most important key to self-leadership is knowing your values. (I know, I know, you have heard me say this a thousand times but I am going to keep hammering it home until you all know your personal values!). Your values are what FUEL you; they drive your actions in life and bring you energy.
You must have the ability to identify and reflect on what you stand for, what your values are, and what matters most to you. To lead yourself and others, you must be willing to look within yourself through regular self-reflection and strive for greater self-awareness.
Taking the time to deep dive into what you value will ultimately make you a better leader of yourself and others. As someone who has been through a few didn’t values discovery exercises, it helped me learn a lot about myself, what I value and how I want to lead. I can’t stress enough how impactful this can be for you – I actually think you are doing a disservice to yourself by not doing a values assessment during your lifetime. You will gain clarity around your passions and what you want in life. You will discover what motivates you and drives your actions. Why wouldn’t you want to know this?! Think about the possibilities for your life if you were more clear on what is most meaningful to you!
So, over the next week I implore you to make time for some self exploration and values development. To help kick that off I’ve given some self reflection resources below to help guide you through the process.
Resources for self exploration:
Answer these questions:
- What are your interests and hobbies?
- What motivates you in work/life?
- What makes you happy?
- What is most important to you?
- How to Live With Purpose, Identify Your Values and Improve Your Leadership
- Building a Leadership Identity Starts with a Personal Brand
- Deciding What’s Important to You in Life
Embrace the day!
Christina
Insta: ciaturner
Twitter: CTurner_Strong
