When transitioning from practitioner to leader, it helps to reflect on good leadership models and aim to emulate them.

I want to take a moment to consider the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day. It’s such an important topic, and seeing it being acknowledged is great for us all.

In the realm of leadership, you’ll often come across a range of long-standing ideas and perspectives around what leadership ‘is’ or ‘should be’.

While there seems to be some merit in the recognising that ‘new year, new me’ mindsets can set us up for failure, I think it’s all in how we think about our goals as long-term direction and progress.

During the course of 2022, the focus of self-leadership has changed.

Rather than using it to adapt to the uncertain world we were dealing with, we began tentatively using self-leadership to move beyond the day to day and shape the life, career and future we long for.

Last week was a fabulous week!

I had the pleasure of working with many wonderful people who were engaged and so positive about my work and I can't tell you how energising it was, not just to me but also to my team who I shared my experience with...

*Disclaimer* I'm not talking about having a blissful spa day, massage, baths and candles.

Whilst those things can be very nice, deeply replenishing and meaningful self-care is something quite different.

Self care should always be a priority.

It needs to be a proactive focus at a team and individual level, not just when an individual is getting burnt out. Self-care should also not just be a priority because of covid.

As we start heading in to the last stretch of the year, I’m aware many of us are feeling tired and lagging the energy to feel inspired and motivated to our usual level.

The idea of backing yourself is one that many of us struggle with - there is often a perception that confidence in oneself and your actions is arrogance but this is rarely the truth.

So someone asks you R U OK, then what? How do we know if we’re OK?

What does OK actually even mean?

These months can drag on as we wait for the sun to come out and revive us with vitamin D. However, just waiting for spring as a motivator will not keep us happy and healthy - and in fact, this approach, is poor self-leadership.

Regardless of what our professional role is, we all benefit from paying attention to our self-leadership skills.

Self-leadership is simply the way we lead ourselves. It is how we apply leadership skills to relating to, guiding and directing our own thoughts and actions, and it is something that you don’t want to ignore.

Are you an active player in your own story?

“Am I outsourcing my self-leadership?” If so, Instead of doubting yourself, deliberately back yourself and be self-compassionate.

By closely working on self-leadership skills, individuals can more effectively lead others, whether they are colleagues, family or friends.

Many of us think about good leaders we have had or would like to have and then try and find them.

However, how many of us look for this leader within?

It is possible to reflect on the year in terms of our contributions and, also in terms of the strengths and skills that you’ve used and developed, so that we can take these skills forward more intentionally.

When we take a step back from our day to day work life (whether as a conscious choice or enforced) it can encourage us to reflect more deeply our values and our goals.

How about you? Where can you focus on what you can control rather than what you can’t?

We have all been riding the corona coaster for a while now and can't really see a clear end as we go in and out of lockdowns but after over a year of this experience I think we can look back and review how we initially responded, adapted and how we are leading ourselves and our teams now.

As we continually acclimatise to an ever-changing environment, like sudden lockdowns, we need skills in dealing with uncertainty and adaptability.