Leadership -- Self Development Sgm

Leadership -- Self Development

SGM Sebastian Morman Sr.

United States Army Sergeants Major Academy

SGM Walter Thomas

Leadership -- Self Development

Self-esteem is crucial for effective leaders

Trust begets trust; high self-esteem begets respect; low self-esteem only begets obedience

Only psychologically secure leaders can allow participatory decision-making. Psychological insecurity undermines genuine leadership and trust.

Effective leaders promote self-development in their subordinates; ineffective leaders are threatened by that prospect.

Establishing trust requires communicating an understanding of others' perspectives and needs.

Integrity is crucial for effective leadership and consists of fundamental consistency in statements, actions, and values.

Abstract

Generally, leadership within the context of the professional business environment is considered in the context of people skills and personal and professional values and expectations. However, there is another crucial aspect of leadership that has nothing to do with teachable skills or even with natural personality traits and abilities: namely, personal psychological development or self-development. It differs from the other components of leadership mainly in that it has to do strictly with the individual leader rather than with anybody else. In principle, effective leaders must be self-aware; they must be psychologically secure enough to maintain an objective perspective, yet simultaneously empathetic enough to understand the motivations, fears, aspirations, and frustrations of others. They must be able to communicate in a manner that is conducive to establishing trust, and they must demonstrate personal integrity. All of those abilities require that leaders achieve a high level of self-development.

The Importance of Personal Self-Development in Leaders

As a general rule, the way we treat and respond to others is substantially a function of the way we see ourselves (Giuliani, 2002; Maxwell, 2007). Therefore, people who have positive expectations and motivations and who are comfortable "in their own skins" so to speak tend to maintain equally positive expectations of and assume the best in others, and tend to help others be comfortable in their mutual interactions. Conversely, those who are psychologically insecure, mistrustful of others without cause, and who regularly project negative expectations onto social interactions tend to make other uncomfortable and to provoke negative responses from others (Maxwell, 2007; Fitch, 2010).

This point can be illustrated by the following example. A male Soldier (PVT John Doe) arrives to his first unit after graduation from basic training. He hasn't taken any initiative within his team, does only what he is told, and fails to show any leadership qualities. A female Soldiers reports to the same unit during the same time and is promoted ahead of her peers because she take the initiative and gets the mission accomplished.