The Pandema generated a change that nobody had achieved before, to install the Home Office modality simultaneously and globally. While it is working well, and will stay after the confinement is over, adaptation is crucial and SELF-LEADERSHIP became the main challenge for those who want to go further in their careers.
Self-leadership is the practice of intentionally influencing your own thoughts, emotions and behaviors to achieve your goals. It allows a person to reach their potential while building a solid foundation from which to make daily decisions, both professionally and personally.
Companies show the 7 most relevant aspects to exercise to be successful in the realization of remote work: commitment and performance 22%, efficiency 20%, closeness17%, control 16%, connectivity 11%, training 7% and security 6%.
According to the “teleworkers”, the most valued aspects of performing their activities at home are the additional time generated by not having to travel to work, flexible hours, monetary savings on transportation, clothing and snacks, the more time they can share with their families and the independence that teleworking itself enables.
One of the great changes that telework presented to companies is that the collaborator has a more active role, and it is at this point that their well-being and experience becomes more critical than ever. These collaborators who take the responsibility to lead themselves remotely need new organizational structures that go from the infrastructure they have at home or the training models with which they incorporate new competencies, to the way they stay motivated to give their best.
Self-leadership begins within the individual. Self-directed people make their own decisions to achieve their personal goals and objectives. This skill is typical and fundamental in employers, mentors and senior managers, but in this global situation it is necessary for any type of worker. We say that a subject has self-leadership skills when they have foresight, make the right decisions and choices on their own, and exhibit dedication to achieving their goals.
Apart from goal setting, 3 other factors that help individuals become great self-leaders are self-awareness, self-confidence and self-efficacy. Every manager, and from now on anyone working from home, should possess these skills.
In this sense, self-leadership takes place “from the inside out”. Leaders are constantly developing and learning, and incorporate emotional intelligence to reach their potential. And this has nothing to do with the way they choose to dress or the postures they adopt to be comfortable working from home, unlike what is expected in traditional work environments.
Why is self-leadership so important to the Home Office?
Teleworker self-leadership is a feature that is extremely valued by employers. This means that you must be able to plan and set your goals on your own, as well as influence yourself to follow those plans in the face of personal distractions – child and pet requirements, household chores you didn’t do before, etc. – that may arise during working hours.
Self-leadership helps the individual be proactive, disciplined and an independent decision-maker. People who do not have a strong sense of this quality tend to feel out of control, often lack focus and are easily overwhelmed. Likewise, self-leadership allows you not only to know yourself, but also to appreciate the efforts of others.
In business and in personal life, this skill will be essential to achieving success and balance. It results in the achievement of goals, independence and the ability to lead others more effectively.
If we consider the dramatically increasing unemployment rates, we can think that #HomeOffice and digitalization represent an opportunity to access the world of work for all those who can do jobs from a distance -whether in a dependent relationship or not-, such as women who were previously excluded because of their role as mothers, people of +40/50/60 years old and tertiary students who can distribute their schedules.
In Spain, a study carried out by representatives of the University of Oxford and the Complutense of Madrid has concluded that 32% of the jobs can be done at a distance.
What is your case? Did your employees and collaborators manage to develop their self-leadership by working from home?
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