Self-management allows us to improve our self-esteem, goals, relationships, and values. Strengthening your self-management skills will have an immediate impact on the well-being of yourself and your relationships. How we lead ourselves through our own lives has a direct impact on how we lead others. Here are seven ways you can develop your self-management skills:
1. Embrace Your Strengths
Self-managers understand their strengths and play to them. Reflect on what you do best and how you do it. For example, it can be helpful to identify your skills when working in teams. If you are good at keeping your group on task when working on a class project, that is an important strength to recognize. The ability to keep your group focused requires the same skills necessary to keep yourself on track to reaching your goals. Identifying your strengths will allow you to apply them to your personal goals and relationships.
2. Adapt to Challenges
Leaders approach challenges with a healthy attitude. Although self-management involves strategic planning, we can’t anticipate everything that will be thrown at us. But we can control how we tackle things thrown at us. When planning for the future, acknowledge the possibility of challenges arising. Create an action plan for how you can solve potential problems that may pop up. Then, you will be better prepared to face challenges when they do arise by adapting your actions.
3. Nurture Your Relationships With Others
An important part of managing yourself is managing your relationships. Our personal and professional relationships are a part of what makes us who we are and greatly shape our day-to-day lives. We have the responsibility to hold ourselves accountable in our relationships. How you interact with others directly strengthens or hinders your relationships. Making an active effort to spend time with friends and family or getting to know the people you work with will nurture productive relationships.
4. Set Goals for Yourself
Leaders continuously improve themselves. Goal setting is an integral part of self-management. Identify your goals and make a conscious effort to work towards them. For example, leaders skilled in self-management can conceptualize what type of lifestyle they would like to be leading in five years, and they will start working on achieving that lifestyle. Set attainable goals for yourself and invest the time necessary to reach them. It can be easy to put your personal goals aside to focus on projects or assignments, but self-managers consistently work toward bettering themselves by making time for their aspirations.
5. Understand Your Emotions
Good leaders are skilled in regulating their emotions. Being aware of your feelings will help you to maintain healthy relationships and attitudes. For example, leaders are able to recognize when they are frustrated during conflict with another individual and can ask for a break in the conversation. Being able to identify and understand your emotions is essential to interacting with others in a healthy, productive way.
6. Be Patient
Being patient with yourself and others is important to self-management. Leaders have a strong sense of patience. Patience works in tandem with regulating your emotions and often requires practice to develop. Remember that everyone, including yourself, works at their own pace and in their own way. Self-management requires the understanding that we can’t control everything. Reaching our goals takes time and being patient will help you approach them with a healthy attitude.
7. Prioritize Your Well-Being
One of the best things you can do to improve your self-management skills is making time for self-care. In order to maintain a healthy attitude and productive relationships, you need to have a healthy and productive relationship with yourself. Although planning and goal-setting are important, it is also important to take breaks. Set time aside to do the things you enjoy and that make you feel good. Otherwise, you will feel burnt out, and managing yourself will become much more difficult. Taking breaks to put on a face mask, binge your favorite TV show, or do whatever else it is that makes you feel good is healthy.
Sources:
https://guides.library.illinois.edu/leadership/personal/self-management
https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/guide/self-management/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/leading-by-example-a-guid_b_7270048
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