Blanchard and Self Leadership Skills: How to Stay Effective When Work Keeps Changing

Work environments are seldom stable nowadays; they are constantly influenced by new technologies, altered customer requirements, shifting company priorities, as well as changing staff composition. All of these factors mean that continuous adaptation is inevitable. Technical skills are not enough; it is crucial to be able to lead oneself and make decisions.

Blanchard and Self Leadership Skills become an important guide in such situations. Self-leadership is defined as being responsible for one’s performance and recognizing when there is a need for guidance, support, motivation, and more independence.

Self-led professionals do not need any external assistance in solving all their problems; instead, they analyze the situation and find out how to get further.

Why Adaptability Begins With Self Leadership

Adaptability can be defined as the capacity to adapt to changes. However, effective adaptation goes beyond the mere acceptance of a change in processes and the introduction of a new tool.

There is a need for understanding the impacts that change brings about on duties. Individuals need to know what they know, do not know and the resources that can assist them in coping with challenges.

Having excellent Self Leadership skills assists individuals in coping with such a process since it makes them embrace a personal initiative in response to the changes that are occurring.

In case an organization adopts a new software platform, one individual will just wait for the training to be done before starting to cope with the change. The other individual will investigate the new platform, raise issues and go for training.

This makes the second individual a good self leader.

The Blanchard Perspective on Changing Needs

Blanchard’s theory of leadership suggests that a person may need different leadership approaches depending on one’s competence and confidence to perform a certain task.

This approach is especially applicable during the period of changes.

While a seasoned worker may not require much guidance in performing his/her habitual job, he/she will definitely require much help in doing something totally new. Doing everything in the same manner might prove less effective in such cases.

Self leadership allows people to see these distinctions.

While a person used to think, “I am a seasoned worker and thus I do not need any assistance,” the self-aware individual will be able to say, “I know how to do this type of work, but I need some help in doing this specific task.”

It is a more pragmatic attitude towards personal development.

Self Leadership Skills and Personal Accountability

Accountability is one of the key elements of Self Leadership Skills.

When you are being accountable, you understand that the decisions you make affect your outcome. You do not take responsibility for all the things that happen to you but instead identify those areas where your behavior matters.

For instance, you missed the deadline of a certain project. When you are not self-led, you would just think about all the things that happened from the outside.

However, when you are self-led, you would evaluate the situation more objectively.

As a result, you would ask yourself:

Was I clear about the deadline?

Did I inform my boss in advance about the problems that I have with the schedule?

Were my priorities right?

Did I lack some resources? What can be done better in the next project?

Moving From Instructions to Initiative

Most professionals start their careers through following instructions. They need to know what has to be done, the timeline of completion and the approach to follow.

Instructions are great, especially when an individual is taking up a new task. But to grow professionally, one must take a gradual step towards initiative.

Developing Self Leadership Skills assists employees to do just this.

An individual who has initiative will not neglect the instructions. The difference is that such an individual understands the purpose of the instruction and starts to think of ways to add value beyond the basic expectation.

In the case of preparing monthly reports, for instance, an employee with initiative will notice that the entire process consumes too much time. As such, instead of just producing a report each month, he or she will come up with suggestions on how to do it better and faster.

That is the point where self-leadership becomes of great use to the individual and the organization at large.

Knowing When You Need Direction

One of the misconceptions regarding Self Leadership is that good professionals must work independently all the time.

It is not true.

Learning how to seek direction when necessary is one of the key elements of Self Leadership Skills. Taking an uninformed action only to show that one works independently may cause further complications down the road.

One could rather analyze the situation before seeking any help.

Rather than saying, "What shall I do?," one could say, "I have analyzed the situation from different angles and think that option A would be more realistic for these reasons. However, your opinion on this particular matter is very important."

Blanchard's point of view could provide the rationale for such actions.

Building Confidence Through Experience

Confidence does not always precede competence. In most professional settings, confidence arises through constant practice.

Workers who shun difficult projects may shield themselves from any immediate pain but deprive themselves of opportunities for development.

Effective Self Leadership Skills motivate workers to take up appropriate challenges in a spirit of learning.

An effective technique to create confidence is to break down a hard project into stages.

The first thing to do is to identify the goal. The next step should be to identify what you know. Then identify what you need to learn. Thereafter, accomplish part of the project and get better through feedback.

This process creates proof of achievement. With time, success builds up confidence.

Managing Priorities Without Constant Supervision

Professionals working today are involved in juggling a number of tasks at one time.

Emails, deadlines, meetings, projects, reporting duties, and any other task can distract an employee.

An individual who lacks self-management can be busy without achieving anything at all.

The Self Leadership Skills are very helpful in determining the difference between activity and productivity in professionals.

One way is by distinguishing:

Tasks that influence the achievement of a critical objective

Tasks with definite deadlines

Tasks that require cooperation

Tasks that are postponable

Employees can allocate their time in a proper way.

Self-led professionals also convey when the priorities conflict and cannot be met anymore.

Using Feedback as a Development Tool

While feedback may be difficult to take at times, it is very important for growth.

Individuals who are competent in Self Leadership Skills do not always see every feedback as being critical of them. Rather, they see it as something that can help them perform better in the future.

Upon receiving feedback, one may ask the following questions:

"What behavior is it that needs to be changed?"

"How can the outcome be improved?"

"What can I practice prior to the next task?"

By asking these questions, one turns feedback into an action plan.

As can be seen from the Blanchard approach, another thing that is very important is providing support in the form of leadership that is proportional to the development of the individual.

Staying Motivated During Difficult Periods

Motivation for a profession is bound to change. There will be days where you find yourself motivated by an interesting task whereas some other days you might feel demotivated doing the same old tasks. Sometimes there will be days where you will get recognition but other times you will work for months without anything in return.

This is when self-leadership skills come into play and help a professional to stay on course amid all this variation.

It allows the individual to be motivated without having to depend on external sources by connecting their daily tasks with long-term objectives. For instance, the hard work done in learning a skill today will give way to better career prospects in the future.

Developing a Growth-Oriented Work Mindset

Growth-mindset professionals do not believe that any difficulties will be easily solved. They realize that capabilities can be developed through study and experience.

This is consistent with the Blanchard model in the aspect of understanding that development is a dynamic process. One can go from someone who needs a lot of guidance to an independent individual due to increasing proficiency and self-confidence.

This way, professional growth becomes a process rather than a state of being.

Practical Ways to Strengthen Self Leadership Skills

Self-Leadership Skills Building is not about becoming an entirely different person. Little actions repeated consistently will create a lot of impact.

Begin With a Clear Vision

Have a vision of how you would like things to turn out prior to starting something important.

Assess the Level of Your Capabilities

Realize what you are capable of doing alone and when extra help would make the achievement of a goal more likely.

Communicate Early

When you see a problem coming, speak up before it gets bigger.

Take Responsibility for Learning

Improve your capability through training, getting feedback, practicing, and using all available resources.

Reflect on Your Decisions

Once you are done with an important assignment, reflect on what went well and what can be improved.

Get Comfortable With Change

Look at new tasks as opportunities to grow, rather than as obstacles.

How Organizations Can Encourage Self Leadership

Organizations should also be a key participant in the creation of the environment where Self Leadership Skills could develop.

Leaders can set clear expectations but leave their employees the freedom to take some decisions. They can give their employees opportunities to find solutions to problems, to try something new and to make mistakes and learn from them.

Blanchard's concept is especially valuable since good leadership is not just the question of how much or how little directions to provide. Good leadership is knowing what that person needs in a specific situation.

A new employee will need to be instructed more strictly. A veteran one will do better with more independence.

Understanding of this difference will allow organizations to create an environment where employees will become more and more competent and independent.

Conclusion

Change in the workplace is inevitable but how one responds to it can be controlled. Development of Self Leadership Skills will enable one to take control of their performance, identify development needs, prioritize activities, and make sound decisions.

The concept linked to Blanchard is helpful in the sense that different individuals require different levels of management and support in terms of their level of competence and confidence.

In relation to employees, it involves knowing your strengths, weaknesses, motivation, and development needs while to organizations it involves creating an environment where individuals can develop from dependency to independence.

Generally, being a good leader does not involve having all the answers to everything but being able to identify the need, acting appropriately, getting help when needed and continuing to develop.

As a professional, regular practice of Self Leadership Skills will make you better equipped to deal with any challenges in the workplace.