Self Leadership and
The New Leadership Playbook
Blog by Andrew Bryant

This story is so familiar that I am sure you have heard it, experienced it, or are living it. Following success in a previous, project, department, or company, a manager or executive is promoted into a new leadership position and fails.

The premise for the promotion is that if someone is successful at leading one team, they will be successful leading any team, but this assumption is based on a common misconception of what leadership is, and how it works.

You Can't be a Leader without doing Leadership

I had a coaching client who was a brilliant marketer. She was creative and led her team to deliver excellent work for her company. She felt she deserved a promotion and the title of CMO. When this finally came, everything changed. The expanded team resented her, complained that she was absent, and the quality of work from her department suffered.

This CMO had confused being a leader with doing leadership, and she is not alone. Leadership books, posts, and memes focus heavily on the...

Employee engagement has long been a metric of leadership and culture. When employees are engaged, they are emotionally invested in their work and the success of the company. However, low employee engagement results in lower productivity, increased costs, poor customer service, lack of innovation, and decreased employee physical and mental health.

Given this impact, smart CEOs and their Executive Leadership Teams (ELTs) are constantly seeking strategies to boost employee engagement and productivity. One such strategy that has proven effective is the practice of self-leadership.

"Self-leadership is the practice of intentionally influencing your thinking, feeling, and actions toward your objectives." (Bryant and Kazan 2012)

Self-Leadership and Employee Engagement

Self-leadership is not just about leading oneself; it's about setting an example for others to follow. When CEOs and ELTs practice self-leadership, they create a culture that encourages employees to take...

David was in his 30s and had already achieved more than his years in terms of career success. On paper his resume looked great, he had worked hard for a prestigious degree and had been hired by a top-tier consulting company. But David's hands would sweat when he needed to give a presentation or sit for an interview, he had a secret saboteur.

This saboteur was stealthily undermining David's confidence, making him feel miserable, and behaving in inauthentic ways. Eventually, David reached out to me for help, and today he is free of the saboteur and said to me, 

"Thank you for reminding me of who I am"

If you find yourself struggling like David, having your confidence drain away at crucial moments, and not reaching your full potential, then read this post and take a moment to reflect. 

Symptoms of the Saboteur

The secret saboteur operates subtly. Here are some signs that it might be undermining your confidence:

1. Persistent Self-Doubt: An ongoing internal dialogue...

A CEO's role is akin to the captain of a ship. They are tasked with setting the course and ensuring that the entire crew is working cohesively to reach the destination. This involves transforming a vision or strategy into tangible results - a task that is easier said than done. A vision without execution is just hot air, and it is in the execution phase that many CEOs encounter significant obstacles.

The challenges CEOs face during this transformative process can be multifaceted. They range from clear communication and coordination, navigating conflicting personalities and priorities within their own Executive Leadership Team (ELT), to creating a cohesive culture.

In this article, I aim to delve deeper into these issues and highlight a few examples from industry leaders as well as my own experience as an Executive Leadership Coach and my research on Self-leadership.

1. Communication and Coordination

One of the most crucial elements in executing a vision is clear...

The leader-employee gap is not new but as the workplace is transforming and employee expectations have changed, its impact can be more readily seen in misalignment reduced productivity, diminished engagement, and The Great Resignation.

Bridging the leadership-employee gap is crucial for fostering a thriving work environment, maximizing human capital potential, and delivering accelerated results, yet many managers and leaders struggle to acknowledge or address this issue. Fearing a lack of control and not trusting their employees to take ownership and responsibility can transform the gap into a chasm.

Leadership Styles and the Leader-Employee Gap

Way back in the 1950s, Douglas McGregor proposed Theory X and Theory Y. These two theories contrast assumptions about human nature and their impact on leadership styles.

1. Theory X: Theory X assumes that employees inherently dislike work and will avoid it if possible. It suggests that individuals are primarily motivated by...

"You can't lead others unless you first lead yourself"

Whether you are a leader, of managers, professionals, or salespeople, understanding and practicing self-leadership will increase effectiveness, and collaboration, and help you to scale.

I was recently interviewed by Wendy Weiss on her podcast  Salesology®: Conversations with Sales Leaders where I shared how to build self-leadership and insights from my latest work, The New Leadership Playbook.

You can listen by clicking the image.

Leadership for Sales Leaders

In the world of sales, leadership plays a pivotal role in driving success and achieving business objectives. While most discussions on leadership focus on leading others, there is an equally vital aspect that often goes unnoticed—self-leadership. Sales leaders who possess self-leadership skills have the ability to inspire and empower their teams, drive innovation, and consistently achieve outstanding results. In this blog post, we'll delve into the...

Whatever your field of expertise Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to impact you, in the near future, if it hasn't already. To put it bluntly, you will either learn to use AI tools or your work will be replaced by them.

A mindset shift that will help you to embrace AI, is to see it as Augmented Intelligence rather than the more ominous Artificial Intelligence. With this mindset, AI tools can help you take charge of your personal and professional life like never before.

In the context of self-leadership, AI tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT can play a significant role in nurturing your self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-learning. These are key components of self-leadership and fundamental in setting personal goals, decision-making, and problem-solving.

AI and Self-Awareness

One of the first principles of self-leadership is self-awareness - understanding one's emotions, strengths, weaknesses, values, and goals (Bryant & Kazan 2012).

ChatGPT and Bard, with...

It is not uncommon for personal and professional success to be elusive. People describe being stuck, being overwhelmed, or facing a block when trying to scale themselves and their teams.

When locked into a pattern, it is natural to blame everything from circumstances to other people. Blaming, complaining, and a victim mindset can exact a terrible toll, but then comes an epiphany,

"What if it's me?"

It is a truism that you can't effectively lead others unless you first lead yourself, which is one of the reasons that in 2012 I wrote, 'Self Leadership - How to Become a More Successful, Efficient and Effective Leader from the Inside Out". 

Healthy self-leadership is evidenced by results such as these,

"Self-leadership has produced results I had no idea were possible. I have grown enormously as an executive: my relations with my managers and staff are far more harmonious; I have been able to coach my team through significant personal development."   -  Grant...

Newton's first law of motion, also known as the law of inertia, states that an object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force. This means that an object will continue to do what it is currently doing unless something else intervenes to change its course.

This law has significant implications for human success. In order to achieve success in any endeavor, individuals must apply force and momentum to move themselves or their circumstances in a desired direction. However, inertia can often be a formidable obstacle to this process, as it tends to keep things moving in their current direction.

Self-leadership and Success

To overcome the inertia from established systems and patterns, individuals must apply force through self-leadership.

"Self-leadership is the practice of intentionally influencing their thinking, feelings, and 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣, toward their objectives." (Bryant & Kazan 2012)

For example, if an individual wants to...