*Definition: Personal Leadership

Personal Leadership DefinitionnPersonal leadership is the ability and desire to crystallize your thinking and to establish a specific direction and destination for your own life. It includes the courage, choice, and commitment to move in that direction by taking committed and determined action to acquire, accomplish, or become whatever you visualize for your future. nnBuilding Personal LeadershipnCritical to your work and personal success is building your own personal leadership. There is no substitute to learning more about yourself, acquiring knowledge and wisdom, practicing new skills, and developing more of your personal potential for greatness. Building personal leadership is absolutely essential to your long-term achievements, success, and happiness. However, what I observe is that many people are so busy that they find no time to create a brighter future for themselves. nnWhen you build personal leadership you develop your own capacity to work smarter. You improve your effectiveness and productivity. You develop a focus for your life endeavors through developing clear statements of vision, purpose, mission, and values. You make steady conscious progress toward your planned goals, dreams, and aspirations. You become a model of personal leadership for those you interact with. You qualify yourself to become an effective organizational leader. You become aware of the potential pitfalls that could derail you in your work and life. You march confidently down the path of life knowing you are on “purpose.” You easily say “Yes” to the life you should live and “No” to the parts of life that would distract you from your mission.nnMany business people believe that developing leadership in their organizations is important and I concur. Building personal leadership precedes building organizational leadership. Examine your own personal development plans and actions. If you are not daily and consciously developing your personal leadership, then you will be ineffective at helping the people who work for you develop their leadership skills. It all starts with you. You have a choice today. What will your choice be?n