Page 231 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

220 HBR Leader’s Handbook

■ Having the opportunity to pursue spiritual renewal or engage with personal
religious beliefs?
Review your answers to the questions. Think about each issue, especially where you
have low satisfaction:

■ What’s holding you back from higher satisfaction today?

■ What are some changes, mechanisms, or new disciplines you could develop to
improve your situation?

■ Are there people—colleagues, subordinates, assistants, a personal coach—
who could help you devise, and then support, your improvement
strategies?
■ How will you measure your progress, and how can you regularly review that
progress to correct course and improve over time?

The practice of leading yourself will at times be a very solo and even lonely
journey for you. But it is fundamental to both your personal suc- cess and
everyone else your leadership will touch. Many leadership books begin—
and go no further than—where this volume ends: focusing on self-
understanding, critical habits, and other personal aspects of leading your-
self. We hope that you see these aspects of the practice as means to an end
rather than ends unto themselves. By developing yourself, you develop your
ability to achieve collective organizational effectiveness, once again, to
deliver greater impact by working with others toward common goals.

Questions to Consider

■ Know yourself. What key questions should you be asking in order to better
know yourself? Are you most confident in your self-assessment of charac-
ter, style, or skills? Where would it help to get an external perspective?

■ Grow yourself. What is your preferred style of learning: reading, class-
room, on the job, as a mentee? Are you finding ways to maximize that style