Self-Leadership

Excellence in leadership starts with self-leadership


Leadership development often focuses on how we influence others. Yet how we lead begins within: with our mindset, emotions, intentions and the way we respond to what happens around us.


What is inside inevitably shows up outside—in our decisions, relationships, communication and impact. Self-leadership is therefore not about suppressing our inner world, but becoming aware of it and learning to work with it.


Find some Self-Leadership Tips on this page.

Self-leadership is the ability to understand and manage ourselves so that we can act with intention rather than simply react.


A leader’s inner world—their mindset, emotions, values and assumptions—inevitably shows up in how they communicate, make decisions and influence others. It shapes workplace relationships, client interactions and, ultimately, the conditions that support strong business results.


These practical tips will help you strengthen self-leadership in everyday working life.

Self-Leadership Tips for Leaders

The 4 Pillars of Self-Leadership

By Saba Imru-Mathieu • August 30, 2026
Four essential capacities that help leaders move from inner awareness to intentional action.

Do Leaders in your Organization have Time to Think?

By Saba Imru-Mathieu • August 30, 2026
Three simple ways to create space for leaders to pause, reset and respond with intention.

How Self-Leadership is linked to business results

By Saba Imru-Mathieu • August 27, 2026
How the inner capacities of leaders shape behaviour, teams, and organizational performance

How do we talk about coaching impact without breaking confidentiality?

By Saba Imru-Mathieu • August 18, 2026
For coaching to be embedded in culture we must have a shared language to talk about it

The leadership paradox nobody prepared us for

By Saba Imru-Mathieu • August 18, 2026
Examine the leadership paradox in today's world. Learn how self-leadership helps executives manage change & reduce burnout.
An ant pushes a large stone uphill. Text reads:

Hope and Re-hope

By Saba Imru-Mathieu • January 30, 2026
Explore resilience & hope in leadership. Gain insights on navigating change. Contact us for support in your journey.
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The Promise of Coaching: Understanding How Change Happens

By Saba Imru-Mathieu, MA, ICF PCC • November 9, 2025
Explore how coaching drives change in leadership. Enhance your skills today with our expert guidance.
A person standing in a bright yellow field of flowers with arms outstretched toward a clear blue sky.

Self-Coaching for Motivation

By Saba Imru-Mathieu, MA, ICF PCC • October 27, 2025
Utilize self-coaching tools to enhance motivation & achieve your goals. Start your journey to personal growth today!
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10 steps to prepare yourself for leadership with self-coaching

By Saba Imru-Mathieu • June 7, 2022
You may be wondering why all the promotions are passing you by. Here are 10 things you can do to set yourself up to progress in your career and prepare yourself for a leadership position.

What’s different about a coaching conversation?

By Saba Imru Mathieu • August 11, 2021
A coaching conversation unfolds as a form of gentle inquiry aimed at helping a person to think through a problem, clarify an objective or find new perspectives. The "coach" uses open-ended questions that invite novel thinking, and largely refrains from giving their own tips.
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Books about Coaching

So many books on coaching! What to read?

By Saba Imru Mathieu • June 14, 2020
There are so many books about coaching and it’s quite hard to navigate through all the titles to find what really matches your needs. Here are a few tips from my bookshelf.
Meet My Books video series title card for the Evidence-based Coaching Handbook, featuring a row of books and a headshot.

Evidence-based Coaching, Dianne Stober, Anthony Grant

By Saba Imru Mathieu • May 31, 2020
The Evidence Based Coaching Handbook brings together a wide number of research-based approaches, grounded in the behavioural sciences, that can be used for executive and personal coaching. The practical application of each approach is illustrated through case studies.

The Coaching Manager, James Hunt and Joseph Weintraub

By Saba Imru Mathieu • May 28, 2020
James Hunt and Joseph Weintraub wrote one of the first comprehensive books on the role of managers who coach, taking the reader step by step into adopting this new and empowering leadership style, that develops talent and enables top performance.
Meet my books video series

Deep Change, Robert Quinn

By Saba Imru Mathieu • April 19, 2020
Meet my books video series - In this inspiring book, Robert Quinn takes us on an inner journey to reconnect to our sense of purpose and ignite our leadership potential to drive positive change. A great read for leaders who want to re-energize in times of organizational cynicism.
Meet my books video series

Tales for Coaching, Margaret Parkin

By Saba Imru Mathieu • March 1, 2020
Meet my books video series - Margaret Parkin has written a wonderful book for coaches, guiding them through the process of using story-telling in their practice. Stories can serve as powerful metaphors of the client’s situation, they may help the client gain new insights and view things from a different perspective.
Meet my books video series

Group and Team Coaching, Christine Thornton

By Saba Imru Mathieu • February 1, 2020
Meet my books video series - This fascinating book by Christine Thornton is excellent for practitioners, leaders and students of coaching who want to understand group dynamics, systems thinking and other crucial concepts and techniques needed to successfully coach groups and teams.
Meet my books video series

Coaching for performance, John Whitmore

By Saba Imru Mathieu • November 30, 2019
Meet my books video series - Sir John Whitmore’s book Coaching for Performance is a classic in the coaching literature. In 1992 it presented a radical break away from the command and control approach in the workplace, inviting managers instead to coach for performance through the development of people's potential. It is a complete guide to coaching skills and mindsets for both managers and for professional coaches.
Meet my books video series

How Coaching Works, Joseph O'Connor, Andrea Lages

By Saba Imru Mathieu • November 1, 2019
Meet my books video series - Joseph O’Connor and Andrea Lages have written wide-sweeping introductory book on coaching covering a history of coaching, the main coaching methodologies, presenting their own model of coaching and giving insights in how to measure the results of coaching.
Meet my books video series

101 Coaching Strategies and Techniques, Gladeana McMahon, Anne Archer

By Saba Imru Mathieu • June 2, 2019
Meet my books video series - Edited by Gladeana McMahon and Anne Archer, this excellent book presents a wide variety of coaching tools that are easy to use for all coaching professionals. There are tools for different purposes, such as confidence building, problem-solving or group coaching, and clear guidance on how to use them.

Leaders Today Academy Courses

A group of people collaborating in a bright, modern office, with two people in the foreground discussing a document.

The Leaders Today Academy offers various learning experiences to develop a unique combination of leadership and coaching skills for 21st century leaders. 


All our face-to-face workshops are suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic to safe-guard everyone's health.

Read more about the Leaders Today Academy and plan for future trainings.