Becoming the boss… of your own life

Becoming the boss and being in charge is something we all strive to achieve in some shape or form in our lives. But what if I told you that you are already the boss…? You are the boss of our own life and you are responsible for your performance, your enthusiasm and boredom as well as how you adapt to what life brings your way. So… if you think about it how would you report to your personal boss about what’s happening in your life right now. Could you honestly say you are enthusiastic, focused on your goals, meeting deadlines as well as performance targets? This life-long process of questioning and monitoring your personal performance is what Self-management is all about.

Self-management is defined as being self aware and focused on delivering the best of yourself in your work. Therefore self management is about recognizing opportunities for growth, learning and gaining insight into your own life and contribution. This responsibility means that you take action not because you have to or because other people are measuring you but because you are measuring yourself. You begin cultivating an attitude of accountability and no longer waiting for others to motivate you but instead you begin to walk your own path. So before you begin to feel overwhelmed by this idea please know that Self-management is not about being hard on yourself but more about cultivating a new attitude that can all begin today with some small changes.

Before we get into the changes lets first understand what we are aiming to develop. The first aspect of Self-management as it is defined above is self awareness. Developing our self awareness is about exploring and identify your personal values, beliefs, commitments, needs and why you act and react in certain ways. These are like lenses that influence the way we view the world and no ones is exactly the same. When we cultivate our self awareness it becomes easier to formulate our goals and add our unique value since we understand what and why things are important to us.

The second aspect of Self-management is recognizing opportunities – not problems. This is an important skill that can impact greatly on your life. When we come across problems in our lives we have a choice. We can see it as an opportunity to learn and grow. Or we can only see the problems and mistakes and become paralyzed. When we recognize opportunities it is not that we don’t make mistakes – instead we are more open to take action and our mistakes help us with our learning and therefore shouldn’t be avoided. So are you growing and moving towards opportunities or are you being held back by fear?

The development of this self awareness and ability to recognize opportunities allows us to become more competent when we are…

• Setting goals and deadlines

• Monitoring our behavior and performance

• Developing our personal initiative and maintaining our enthusiasm  

How does this translate into the workplace?

Self-management skills are especially relevant when we examine how often technical skills aren’t the only requirement for effective functioning in an organization. In our current fast paced and competitive markets we are often overwhelmed by information, new innovations, diverse cultures and new daily problems. The turnover of personnel also leaves teams that in previous generations developed over long periods of time with immediate deliverables that makes delegation and independence essential.

Therefore, by developing Self-management skills individuals are able to set their own goals and monitor their performance more effectively. This allows individuals to harness their personal power and thereby make a unique contribution which is more fulfilling since it is personally motivated and not imposed on the person.

How do we begin?

To start we will examine some simple tips and exercises that can get you on this road…

• There are various resources available on Self-management and some I would recommend are:
  • Emotional Intelligence for Everyone by Stephanie Vermeulen

  • Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton

  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

• Start a journal where in you record your observations in a day, maybe set yourself some questions to answer with regards to your performance, what your goals are and why they are important to you.

• Talk to people. Find a trusted friend or colleague and begin the process of untangling your values and beliefs – also start trying to understand theirs.

Self management exercises

These are quick and easy exercises that allow us to begin shifting our perceptions and cultivating the attitude of Self-management. 

1. Ask yourself the following when faced with a task: “How would the boss approach this?” or “How would the best/ top _________  approach this task?”
   1. This helps you to start thinking like the boss and become aware of your approach to your work and performance

2. Become more detail orientated.

3. Follow up and follow through.

4. Focus on the solutions. See problems as opportunities and learn from your mistakes. Do not avoid problems… no boss can get away with this.

5. Ask yourself “How can I add value here?”

6. Be answerable and ask questions. The best bosses are those who acknowledge their own ignorance and address this. So ask “what’s going on?” and “what needs to be done?”.

7. Become aware of your posture and check in with yourself.
   1. Stop at times and drop in with yourself. See how you are feeling and what posture you are holding… our posture often gives us great clues into how we are really feeling and presenting ourselves.

Why should we do it?

As we can see the powerful advantage of self-management is not only for our company’s benefit but our own personal development. The ability to develop and direct your personal contribution in order to make a constructive impact will not only be more productive but leave you more personally fulfilled. Therefore, self management skills will allow personal and professional satisfaction that can establish a culture of brilliance within any organisation. This will also allow you to develop a competitive edge in the workplace that is unique to your talents and skills.

I look forward to hearing from you.

To your brilliance…

Danielle

Box Edge