The Three Levels of Leadership - Scouller Leadership Blog » What Is Self-Mastery & Why Is It A Game-Changer?
What Is Self-Mastery & Why Is It A Game-Changer?
After The Three Levels of Leadership came out in 2011, readers followed up with questions on leadership, leadership psychology and self-mastery – all of them interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I’m releasing my answers here as they supplement the “Three Levels” material and others may find them useful. Here’s the fifteenth in the series. I’ll post the others over the coming months…
Q15. What exactly is self-mastery in the context of leadership and what makes it game-changing and beneficial for leaders? [This was asked by Joe Scherrer of the Leadership Crucible in the course of an interview in October 2013 for his website.]
“Well, self-mastery, in essence, is inside-out-based change… change from the inside out … where you become aware of what’s happening in your mind and gradually take command of it. This allows you to express your highest potential…not just for your benefit, but in the service of others.
It includes recognising your most important limiting beliefs (beliefs about yourself and the world), letting them go and then practising new, more skilful behaviours. That way you transform as a leader.
I’d say self-mastery is the key to your inner psychological growth, developing your leadership presence and applying everything you know under pressure – skilfully, wisely and powerfully.
The result? Your inner tensions and conflicts fade, you can flow at last and be the real you and feel greater empathy and connection with others. You can be fully present to whomever you’re with or whatever’s happening around you and choose your reactions in the moment. (And by reactions I mean your emotional and your behavioural reactions. That way, you’ll be at your most skilful and powerful.)
That mention of pressure raises another point. You see, many of us have attended courses and learnt new skills, techniques and frameworks, but afterwards we couldn’t apply them under pressure – or we even forget about them. That’s usually because those skills and tools butt up against unrecognised, unconscious limiting beliefs that cause subtle mental divisions and conflicts and these stop us applying what we learned. Sometimes, these beliefs even make us believe we don’t have to learn anything new! This is where self-mastery is so important. It helps us realise where we need to grow, what we need to learn and allows us to try new behaviours by dissolving the old beliefs that would have blocked them.
I mentioned the connection between self-mastery and leadership presence. Leadership presence is so important. It’s the “something” that radiates genuineness, that attracts people, causing them to trust you and want you as a leader. It’s priceless, so any practice that can help you let your unique presence unfold, like self-mastery, is invaluable. So there’s another benefit.
Self-mastery is also essential for raising your mental resilience. Most leaders, especially CEOs, work under huge pressure which can lead to anxiety, health problems and bad decisions. But leaders that practise self-mastery will find their ability to withstand pressure increases enormously. Why? Essentially because they don’t take that pressure as seriously as they used to; they don’t take it so personally. So I’d say the ability to be resilient under pressure is an important advantage for leaders. And that’s something else self-mastery can help with.”
The author is James Scouller, an executive coach. His book, The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill, was published in May 2011. You can learn more about it at www.three-levels-of-leadership.com. If you want to see its reviews, click here: leadership book reviews. If you want to know where to buy it, click HERE. You can read more about his executive coaching services at The Scouller Partnership’s website.
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