Nicola: [00:00:00] to the female leaders on fire podcast. I’m your host, I’m Nicola Buckley, the coach, working with women at the top of organizations, helping them to find their fives, that passion, that purpose, excitement. So they can have more impact and influence and be a real force for good in organizations. So today we, our episode today is a, another shorter episode, one of our leadership lessons, and today we’re going to be talking all about self-leadership.

So today’s really going to be, why is self-leadership so important? Why is it so important for leaders? To have self-leadership as a focus. And why is this where I start with clients and what can you do to start that? Self-leadership. So this I think is super, super important. I think it’s something that’s not talked about so much in [00:01:00] organizations.

So I was really keen to just make sure that there was just, we had these shorter episodes, these leadership lessons that were just really capturing. Self-leadership what it means and the definition, how to get started. So let’s, let’s start the very beginning. Let’s start with what does south leadership actually mean?

And for me, there’s a lot of different definitions, but the one, what I keep coming back to what I teach and coach clients around is really that self leadership is about from the day that you’re born to the day that you take your last breath, you are leader of one, you are a leader of yourself. So you are.

You’re solely responsible for your life. You’re solely responsible for how you show up and you’re solely responsible for what you have in your life. And the reason this is so important is because self-leadership is really, that’s the first step to be in the most impactful and influential leader that you can be.

And I’ve coached and trained thousands of [00:02:00] women over the last few years. I just really see this as something that is so fundamental to being a great leader and ongoing leadership success is really led by and the foundation is built upon your ability to develop. Those skills of self-leadership fast so that you can own your relationship with yourself so you can support yourself and your emotions so that, you know, what’s important to you.

So you can keep developing for feedback because you’ve got that self-awareness. So this is something that I don’t think he’s talked about enough, because I think it’s just a shame that leaders are going to be. Self leaders, you can have that self-leadership nail, but that’s absolutely not true. And many women, when they start work, we’ve, we’ve lost that sense of self-leadership they’ve lost that sense of what’s important to them and what do they need?

What are they what’s important to them, but actually the truth is that [00:03:00] leadership being a great leader. Add that traditional view of leadership where you’re on the board or you’re the CEO and you’re leading the organization or a big division of the company. That’s what leadership is. But actually if you strip it back, Self-leadership starts with you staff leadership stars.

We’ve being that leader of one and a great leader of one, having empathy, having vulnerability, having courage, and what that comes back to is really it’s all about knowing what you need. When you need it and making sure that you can give that to yourself, that you can support yourself in knowing what you need when you need it.

So there’s one part in knowing and that self-awareness, there’s another part and giving us that to yourself. So that’s, that’s then leading into thinking about boundaries, thinking about saying, no. Think about creating that time for yourself. So that to me is what self-leadership is. So why is it important?

It’s important because [00:04:00] leaders have a big role. Leaders have a lot of responsibility. There’s a lot of pressure. If you’re leading an organizational area, especially for the last couple of years, you’re leading that for your pandemic. If you’re leading it for business changes, if you’re leading through a merger of an organization, if you’re leading through having to pivot your organization, this huge pressures that go with that, there’s huge expectations of what you can deliver as a leader.

And that’s all great, but if all your energy is going externally on to supporting your team into creating the strategy and to leading the direction, there’s nothing left for you. So the self-leadership then becomes about it’s almost then. What is the environment where you’re going to five, what is the environment where you’re going to show up and be that best possible leader?

What do you need to be the most impactful leader that you can be just consistently as well? What are your feel? Good foundations, if you like, [00:05:00] and that self-leadership is so important because as a leader, you have a responsibility, not just to yourself, but your organization to your employees, to your team, to your peers.

To make sure that you’re leading yourself first and that you have that self-awareness, that you have that consideration of giving yourself what you need when you need it. So that when you’re showing up that you’re in this great energy, that you’re leading in a way that you’re feeling positive, that you’re feeling energized, that you’re feeling excited.

So everyone then is getting the best of you. Whereas if you neglect yourself and you neglect yourself leadership, and you kind of bump yourself down the priority list, You are not going to be the best of yourself. You’re going to be a very reactive, you’re going to be a very tired, you’re going to be a very emotional leader and that’s not the best of you.

And in fact, when I work with clients, we say, this is where we start. We start with self leadership and the focus of the first module that I always take clients through. Our work is very much [00:06:00] focused on feel, good foundation. So focused on what’s important to you. What do you need, making sure that you own.

And you creating almost at your own massive hierarchy of needs. So that is where we start with clients, because it is a foundation self-leadership starts with you being that great leader that has that impact and that influence to be a voice of change in an organization to be a voice of driving positive parity and equality.

To call out when this behaviors are inappropriate to make the changes, to make that gender quality that starts with you. So self-leadership is bigger than you, even though it’s focused on you, it’s bigger than you. And I want it to talk about this today because I think this is really important because I see clients struggling with this when they saw work with me, because they’ve lost that sense of self-leadership.

And if you think about it one way at a [00:07:00] young and with children, we have this absolute sense of self-leadership you just demand and say what you want in that moment. If you need food, but it’s not, you know, it’s not the right time. It’s not available. You just say it anyway. And then when we get older as well, and we just, we say what we need, what we speak our mind more and more direct.

And it’s almost like this part in the middle where we’re grownup responsible adults. We have all this responsibility and we’re leading in the corporate world. We lose that sense of self-leadership because we’re so focused on everyone else. That’s probably why it’s covered. Say really just to share what’s that definition of, self-leadership why it is so important for leaders to just really have that at the heart of what they focus on for themselves and why I start with this with clients.

So that’s it for today, but if you’re struggling with your self-leadership. Do drop me an email. All the details are in the show notes. And I can, we can book a call and I can share how I can support you. So that’s it for today, [00:08:00] Stacy leadership lesson. Thanks so much. Bye

Well, I took about really resonates with you and you love what I have to say. And you have moments and flashes of inspiration from the podcast. I would invite you to get in touch, to find out how I can help you. So individually, that can be through my coaching focus program for my VIP program, depending on how you like to learn and what will suit you, or I can help you in your organization to really help the women that you work with across the organization at all different levels.

And at that very senior level to really feel empowered and to know that they can reach the very, the most senior levels in that organization and to give them the. In who they are and the clarity, what they want to be able to get there. And we do that through workshops, do that food leadership programs, and we can do that.

Free consulting work. If you are looking for [00:09:00] help with any of that, drop me an email nycla@nicholasschoolco.com. The spelling’s not the easiest. So all the details were in the show notes results I get for clients. Clients have been promoted twice in the six months we’ve worked together. They’d been invited to join the board.

They’ve gone from redundancy to being offered three dreams. They’ve gone from being pushed out of an organization to going into bigger organization and a bigger role with a bigger pay rise and just a quote from a client that particular. I’ve gone from the pit of despair. When I started working with Nick to just being really happy and she is an incredibly empowered leader.

Now, if you’re not quite ready for that, you can download my overwhelmed on fire guide the details that are in the show notes, but that really helps you everyday to stay in your fire. So it helps you to clear your head. It helps you to come back to what’s important to you, and it helps us have that most impact and influence every single day.

It’s a little Quip sheet that you can just go through and tick. So go and download that. Or you can subscribe to my newsletter, which comes out every [00:10:00] Friday, which is a Roundup of the week. Really? So what’s going on in my world. What’s the blog for that week, a quick video, that’s going to help your particular subject.

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