At Echelon Front, we have four core values – leadership at every level, leadership in every capacity, leadership is the solution, and leadership is a skill. When asked why is self-management important, the core belief of leadership in every capacity comes to mind. Leadership in every capacity means you are a leader in all aspects of your life – at work, at home, in your community, and, most importantly, within yourself. Leading yourself is self-management. The official definition of self-management is an individual’s ability to manage their own actions, feelings, and thoughts in a productive and healthy manner. It’s a vital skill for personal development, career advancement, and overall well-being, and it’s a vital skill for every leader.
Understanding the Core of Self-Management
At its heart, why self-management is important revolves around the ability to lead yourself and others. If you cannot manage your own emotions, behaviors, and tasks, how can you expect to lead others?
Since we know that leadership is the solution to every problem we face, we can find the answers to self-management within the principles of Extreme Ownership. Cover and Move, Simple, Prioritize and Execute, and Extreme Ownership are the most critical skills that apply to effectively leading yourself.
Self-Management is Important for Personal Growth
One of the key reasons why self-management is important lies in its impact on personal growth. Here is how we can apply these key Extreme Ownership behaviors to enhance our self-management skills for personal growth.
Staying Organized – Simple
Self-management skills are rooted in your ability to manage your tasks. If you’re constantly behind on deadlines, missing critical information, or are misaligned on what you need to be doing, you won’t be able to effectively execute on the things you want to accomplish in life. Keeping things simple allows you to be more organized and effective at managing what you have to do. This might mean simplifying your daily routines, creating standard processes that are easy to follow, and being disciplined in how you use your time.
Controlling Emotions – Prioritize and Execute
Crucial to self-management is emotional regulation. If you are constantly making emotional decisions and struggle to manage your emotions, you will struggle to grow personally. When we teach Prioritize and Execute, we focus on the main skill of detachment. Detaching from our emotions allows us to see clearly what is happening and how we can effectively impact the outcome. This doesn’t mean we are devoid of emotions, but rather, we recognize the emotions we have and put them aside so we can make the right decision in the moment.
Taking Personal Responsibility – Extreme Ownership
Extreme Ownership is another component of self-management skills. In fact, your willingness to take personal responsibility for the problems you face is one of the most powerful ways to manage yourself. It gives you control. When you choose to take ownership of the problems in your life, you now have the ability to manage those issues effectively.
Building Stronger Relationships – Cover and Move
Another aspect of why self-management is important is its role in building and maintaining healthy relationships. If you understand how to control your emotions, effectively communicate, and you take ownership of problems, the people around you will notice. You will constantly be making deposits into your relationship bank account with each person you interact with when you know how to effectively lead yourself.
Self-Management in Professional Settings
In the professional realm, self-management is about taking ownership of one’s responsibilities and deliverables. It’s about being accountable, meeting deadlines, and delivering quality work. Professionals who excel in self-management are often seen as reliable, competent, and capable of taking on greater responsibility.
Here is how we can apply these key Extreme Ownership competencies to enhance our self-management skills for professional development.
Improve Teamwork – Cover and Move
When you effectively lead yourself, you become better at leading others. Self-management is important because it allows you to better support your teammates. Not only because you have more bandwidth to effectively help them, but also because you are being the example of what a good teammate looks like. Why is self-management important? Because it breaks down organizational division and creates a more cohesive team.
Effective Communication – Simple
If people don’t understand, they can’t execute. Your communication could be the roadblock to your team’s success, but if you understand how to manage yourself and communicate effectively, you can create the cohesiveness the team needs to move forward. Part of self-management is recognizing where you can improve, and if you are always working to simplify plans, processes, and communication, you can constantly increase your effectiveness.
Aligning on Priorities – Prioritize and Execute
Why is self-management important for aligning priorities? Because a critical piece of self-management is learning to detach from our emotions, ego, and perspective. If we can do this, we can ensure that our team is aligned on the highest priorities, not just for our group but for the entire organization. When people have clear priorities, they can properly focus resources to make the biggest impact on the mission.
Personal Accountability – Extreme Ownership
Accountability is a popular topic in a corporate setting. Holding people accountable is often thought to improve productivity. But we know that holding ourselves accountable is the most important thing we can do to help our team be successful. If I am taking extreme ownership of the problems in my organization, I am getting things done and making things happen. Ownership breeds ownership. This will have a positive impact on those around you, and you will reap the benefits in your career growth as well.
Conclusion
In conclusion, why is self-management important? It is essential because it empowers individuals to take control of their actions and emotions, leading to better decision-making, increased productivity, and stronger relationships. Whether in your personal life or a professional context, leading yourself is a key determinant of success and fulfillment. By developing self-management skills, individuals can navigate life’s challenges more effectively and achieve their full potential.
