Managing Yourself
Developing self-management is critical to personal and professional success
When “The Great Work-from-Home Experiment” started back in March of 2020, many people struggled with shifting to a completely new way or working. Instead of getting up in the morning and commuting to an office, they were waking up and strolling down the hallway to their kitchen or guest room to a makeshift home office.
One of the biggest challenges was motivation. Those who successfully navigated the shift to working from home learned self-management. Companies who trusted and empowered their teams to manage themselves saw greater satisfaction and productivity. This experiment has proven that self-management is the future of work and therefore a critical component of personal and professional success.
As part of its ongoing series examining The Great Resignation and the future of work, Authority Magazine recently featured an interview with coach Elizabeth Sandler where she predicted self-management will be one of the biggest trends in the future of work:
“As technology and social change encourage a shift away from the command-and-control of traditional management structures we will see more self-management. This will impact daily work tasks, career development, and performance management.
There are already Fortune 500 companies that have moved away from individual performance reviews with annual bonus awards towards technology-enabled rewards given throughout the year among colleagues. Companies can start by rethinking the role of their managers.”
As conscious leaders, our role is to empower our teams to maximize their potential and offer the flexibility needed to create satisfying work blended harmoniously with a fulfilling life. Therefore, self-management is an especially important trend to embrace and nurture.
The shift away from command-and-control corporate structures means the traditional role of middle managers will change significantly. Instead of serving as project managers overseeing groups of people, their role will shift to focusing on professional development for colleagues and contributing their own individual talent to the organization’s goals.
The overall feel of an organization will be more egalitarian and project-based, where talent comes together for a set amount of time to work on a goal, rather than permanently staying in a set role on a hierarchical organizational chart.
So what can conscious leaders be doing now to prepare for this new way of organizing and working?
Focus on developing your own self-management. I also call this self-leadership, which is the ability to influence and motivate yourself to accomplish your goals.
Begin educating and empowering your team to engage in self-management. (Coaching is an excellent way to help individual team members develop this skill!)
Consider how to shift your company’s current hierarchical structure (which can be slow and clumsy if too entrenched) to a more nimble, agile structure where teams can quickly assemble to accomplish goals.
As the way we work and relate continues to rapidly evolve, there is abundant opportunity to experiment and create new, exciting ways to improve how we all work. Self-management is one of these opportunities. How will you incorporate it into your organization’s culture?
Work happy. Live happy. BE happy.
Meredith
The way we work and build teams is rapidly changing. Leaders often feel unprepared to navigate the transition. As a conscious leadership coach, consultant and communicator, Meredith helps leaders and their teams create new ways of working and relating so they can prepare for the future by consciously co-creating it.
Contact her to develop your conscious leadership and transform your organization into the workplace of the future.
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