Another Perspective On Leadership – Being Led And Self-Leadership Before Leading Others

Written by: Christelle Soto-Suarez, Executive Contributor

Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.

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Leadership. To lead. To be a leader. Those words are pretty much everywhere at the moment: at work, when volunteering, at school, on social media… They are overused, sometimes referred to in the wrong context, and not always given the appropriate meaning.

So, let’s start with some definitions

According to the Oxford Dictionary, leadership is:

The action of leading a group of people or an organization;

The state or position of being a leader

The leaders of an organization, country, etc.

And the same Oxford Dictionary defines a leader as:

The person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country

What I see from these definitions is that leadership is about:

• Commanding, or being in charge of, other people; and

• Someone’s position.
  

And this makes me think of someone having power over other people because of their position, and not because of the way they treat (respect) other people…

However, in recent years, the perception of what is leadership is changing to include influencing behavior change:

In 2023 more than ever, leaders need to be less strategy experts and more human experts. In other words, leaders need to become experts in why people do what they do if they want to help their people act differently

This brings me to think about leadership from the perspective of the person being led:

• How does this person want to be led?

• How does this person lead themselves?

• Who is this person inspired by in terms of leadership style?

• How do the answers to the above questions then impact this person’s leadership style?
  

How do you want to be led?

Have you ever asked yourself this question?

• What leadership style allows you to be at your best (most productive, most creative, aligned with who you are and with your experiences, etc.)?

• Are there situations where you would prefer to be led differently?

• In what situations are you prepared to accept a less “acceptable” (to you) leadership style?

• What leadership style are you simply not prepared to accept, under any circumstances?

• How are you being led right now, whether at work or in more social environments?

• What are the gaps between the way you're being led and the way you'd prefer to be led?

• What can you do about these gaps?

• What are those gaps telling you about your current situation?
  

I’m curious: even if you only spend a few minutes reflecting on these questions… what is coming up for you? And what are you going to do with it?

How do you lead yourself (a.k.a. self-leadership)?

Again, have you ever asked yourself this question?

But, first, what is “self-leadership”?

Self-leadership is not a new term… it first appeared in a 1983 article by Charles C. Manz, referring to

[…] directing yourself toward tasks you’re naturally motivated to complete and managing yourself to complete necessary work when you don’t have motivation.

And a 2022 MasterClass article ¹ explains that self-leadership is a key element to becoming an effective leader because it requires you (as a leader) to have developed emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and self-management skills. If you want to know more about the importance of self-leadership for leaders, you can also check out this 2021 article by Tony Gambill.

Now, let's go back to the question "How do you lead yourself?”.

• Overall, do you feel you’re in the driver’s seat (in charge, the CEO, the Master) of your life? Or do you feel you're letting others, or circumstances, lead you?

• For you, what does it mean to lead yourself, to self-lead?

• Are there situations where it’s ok for you not to be leading yourself?

• In what situations are you prepared to accept less self-leadership?

• What self-leadership style are you simply not prepared to accept, under any circumstances?

• What are the gaps between how you lead yourself right now and how you’d like to lead yourself?

• What can you do about these gaps?

• What are those gaps telling you about your current situation?
  

Once more, I’m curious: even if you only spend a few minutes reflecting on these questions… what is coming up for you? And what are you going to do with it?

Who inspires you in terms of leadership style?

Reflecting on how one wants to be led and lead themselves is great. But it’s very difficult to have an “expansive” vision without looking at what others do: liking, not liking, being inspired, seeing some role models…

So, who, out there, inspires you? – Whether they’re in a formal leadership position, a peer, a friend or family member, someone you heard of, someone in the street… there is no limit to where you can find leadership inspiration!

• What is it about them that inspires you?

• Why do you find it inspiring?

• How can you “insert” this inspiration into your leadership / self-leadership style?

• What could you gain from including this inspiration in your leadership / self-leadership style?

• What could you miss out on by not including this inspiration in your leadership / self-leadership style?
  

Again, I’m curious: even if you only spend a few minutes reflecting on these questions… what is coming up for you? And what are you going to do with it?

And here is the last question: How would you like to lead others (NOW)?

Now that you’ve spent some time reflecting on your leadership style from the perspective of being lead and of leading yourself, and looked into others’ inspiring leadership styles…

How does this reflection impact your leadership style when leading other people, whether in professional or social environments?

• The leadership style you would like to be known for;

• Your leadership style right now;

• The differences between these two styles;

• What you can do about it…
  

There are a lot more questions you could ask yourself, reflect on, and then take action on to design and build up your leadership style… which could be the topic of a whole other article!

I’m curious…

Does this article, and the questions in it, change your perspective on leadership?

If yes, what caused that shift?

Could you use this shift on other topics, and see where it takes you?

Final Words

Interested in knowing more about my 5-step process to “Empowering Yourself to Create the Life and Career You Want”? Book a free 45-minute Empower Yourself Discovery Call!

Simply curious? Then check out Pistachio-Cassis Coaching website!

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Follow me on LinkedIn for inspiration, motivation, and education about how to empower yourself. And please, reach out to me via LinkedIn or email to let me know you’ve read my article. I’d love to hear from you if you have any feedback, suggestions, or anything else you want to tell me!

Read more from Christelle!

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Christelle Soto-Suarez, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine

Christelle Soto-Suarez is a Personal Leadership & Development Coach who empowers Women in STEM / Construction to create the Life and Career they want, and is the founder of Pistachio-Cassis Coaching. She’s a certified professional coach and a member of the International Coaching Federation.

However, coaching is her 2nd career. Previously, she spent 25 years as a construction professional, working on a wide range of construction and engineering projects and in different roles. She worked and lived in several countries, experienced working in multicultural teams, and speaks 3 languages.

But however fulfilling and challenging these experiences were, the time came when she realized that she actually felt unhappy, unfulfilled, unsatisfied with where she was in her life.

Through her own exploration journey to discover how to create the life and career she wanted for herself, Christelle realized she was actually following a life coaching process. That fascinated her so much that she trained as a professional life coach and she set up her own coaching practice to empower others to also create the life and career they want.

Outside of coaching, Christelle loves expanding her horizons through reading, conversing with people with different backgrounds and experiences, and relaxing in nature.

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Reference:

• [1] Self-Leadership Explained: What Is Self-Leadership?, MasterClass, March 23, 2022 (masterclass.com/articles/self-leadership)