As a provider of Leadership and Management training, discussion and debate around the qualities of great leaders is, as you might imagine, a regular occurrence for us. Leadership is a huge subject, with an almost limitless supply of articles, blogs and discussions available on the Internet and in industry magazines. It’s rightly the foundation of nearly all of the training we promote.

When we ask for examples of great leaders during training programmes, common responses include the likes of Winston Churchill, Richard Branson and Nelson Mandela. There are often parallels drawn between the worlds of business and sport with Alex Ferguson and Martin Johnson often cited for their distinctive leadership styles.

When it comes to really successful and growth businesses however, there is an aspect to leadership that is often overlooked; self-leadership.

Enabling self-leadership in itself takes great leadership to achieve, but businesses and organisations that encourage and facilitate their employees to be self-leaders can reap the benefits of staff who:

• Can make decisions
• Understand what their responsibilities are and recognise their accountability
• Are creative in problem solving and persist in the face of adversity
• Set their own objectives and achieve them

The key to self-leadership is being able to recognise where you are for any particular task or competency. Consider four main stages:

• Unconscious Incompetence – you’re unaware of a task and, understandably you don’t know how to accomplish it
• Conscious Incompetence – you recognise there’s a task to be done but you don’t know how to accomplish it
• Conscious Competence – you recognise the task and with some effort and concentration you can accomplish it
• Unconscious Competence – accomplishing the task is a breeze, you could do it one handed

It’s normal to be at different stages of competence for different tasks and being able to recognise when you need help is an appreciation of which stage you are at rather than a sign of failure. It’s also a indicator of self-leadership. It can sometimes be difficult for an employee to ask for support, which is why self-leadership must be understood and enabled from the very top of an organisation.

Organisational culture is where the differences lie between those businesses that see the value in enabling their employees to self-lead and those that persist with a tell and do attitude. The latter are likely to constantly spiral downward due to poor morale, inefficiency and a failure to keep hold of good employees.

Promoting a culture of self-leadership is something that progressive businesses actively develop as part of a growth strategy. We have a range of tools, systems and training packages that can enable self-leadership in your organisation. Call us to discover more on  01452 331331 or by e-mailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.